Through My Eyes
by PaperbackPenny17
Summary: In modern, but not modern times, he's the Prince of Ireland, and she's a bookstore owner from Forks, WA. When a chance in a lifetime sends her to Ireland for a week, will she be able to break through his wall? All Human. Rated T, just in case.
1. Chapter 1

_**Hello everyone! This is the first chapter of my new story, Through My Eyes! I'm posting it a little later than what I wanted to, but RL has been pretty hectic for me lately.**_

_** I want to apologize ahead of time for anything that is grammatically incorrect. I try my best, and I'm going to try with this story to read each chapter several times before publishing it to make sure I didn't miss anything.**_

_** So, without further adieu, I give you the first chapter of Through My Eyes.**_

_**Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight. SM does. I just use her characters for my stories. =)**_

**EPOV**

I had been in and out of consciousness for a while. I could hear the people talking around me. Things about bears… and how I was lucky to be alive…how I was lucky the bear didn't kill me… It kind of put me out when I couldn't see myself. I couldn't even tell where I was. I could guess, though.

I was probably in a hospital. I mean, isn't that where they took people when they got hurt?

I remember leaving to go hunt. I was passing the time until my 21st birthday celebration later that day, and Mom had told me to go do something while she prepared. I remember the bear. It was huge, towering over me as I tried to back away from it. I remember hearing small cries of bear cubs, but then remembering too late that the cries were coming from behind me….where I was backing towards. I remember hearing Emmett shoot the bear, and his panic as he pushed the beast off of me, releasing me of its crushing weight. I remember Emmett carrying me back to the castle; it's not like I'd walked that far from home. I remember Rosalie's and Mom's cries as they saw me when we got to the castle and as they tried to clean up my torn clothes. I remember their cries as we waited for the ambulance, Mom telling me that everything was going to be okay…

And there was one more thing I remember seeing before I slipped out of consciousness the first time: a face. It wasn't anyone I knew. All I remember seeing was her rich, mahogany hair and her chocolate brown eyes…

***~*O*~***

I was in a hospital room. The tacky white walls and cheap paintings hanging on the wall were evidence of that. There was an incessant dripping noise coming from somewhere off to my right, and I could hear a quiet beeping noise, too.

Something was sticking out of my nose, and I tried to pull it out. Someone stopped me.

"Oh, no, you don't, Your Highness."

I looked to my right. Emmett McCarty, my giant of a bodyguard and head of the Royal Family security, was sitting in a chair next to my bed; hand on my wrist, stopping me from pulling the tube out of my nose.

I smiled. "Emmett!"

He chuckled. "Hello, Sir. You gave us quite a scare, there. Your mother is eager to see you, but I told her it would be better for both her and you if she waited until you were home, first."

"Good man. And how are you, Emmett?"

He looked shocked. "How am I? Sir, I should be asking _you _that question!"

I raised an eyebrow at him. "What do you mean, Emmett? How bad _am _I?"

He leaned forward. "Sir, you have scars running up and down the entire left side of your body. The doctors were shocked to find that no nerves were wrecked, but obviously, the scars are permanent."

I frowned. "Can I see?"

Emmett frowned. "Sir, I said no nerves were wrecked, so obviously, you looking at me mea-"

I laughed. "No, Emmett, that's not what I meant. I meant can I see, as in, is there a mirror around here so that I can see what I look like?"

"Oh." He looked around for one. "Ah, here's one." He handed me the small hand mirror.

I was shocked. I'd imagined worse, but I guess you could say that I didn't look extremely terrible. Huge, puffy red marks ran up and down the left side of my face. I handed Emmett the mirror and lifted the sheet. I couldn't see much because of the gown I was in, but my left arm and leg, both, were covered in the same, deep red marks.

Emmett interrupted my thoughts. "I'm so sorry, Sir. This is all my fault, if I'd followed you sooner, and shot the beast before it attacked you, then this wouldn't have happened."

I shook my head. "Emmett, it's not your fault. If it's anyone's, it's mine."

Emmett was going to say something else, when the doctor walked in. "Ah, you're awake, Your Highness."

I cleared my throat. "Yes, um, I'm awake…was I asleep long?"

"It's June 23rd, Sir. You've been unconscious for three days. Not uncommon, but we didn't expect it to be that long."

I nodded. "Okay, but I'm clear to go home, now, right? That's what you came here to tell me?"

The doctor smiled and nodded. "Yes," he grabbed something from his stack of papers on his clipboard. "Now if you will just sign these papers…"

***~*O*~***

The limousine rolled to a stop outside the castle. I immediately climbed out, not waiting for anyone to open the door for me. Emmett followed after.

I made my way up the entry staircase, and nodded to the doormen as they opened the front doors. I could already hear my mother acknowledging my presence from inside the castle.

"Edward!" she cried as she flew down the staircase. For a woman who put very good priority in showing the utmost control in public, she was very laid back in the castle. In her off-white turtleneck and dark jeans, she looked more like a mother than the queen of our small country of Ireland. She pulled back and caressed the scars on my face.

"I am so sorry, dear. I should have known better than to have you run off while we finished setting up for your party."

I shook my head. I was not going to let her take the blame for this. "No, Mother, it's my fault. I should have known better than to go off into the north woods." I smiled and shook my head. "It is not your fault."

She smiled and hugged me again. "Okay, then. Are you feeling okay? Did the doctor prescribe anything?"

I nodded. "I'm fine. Just a slight tingling in my arm, but it's nothing I can't handle. Um…" I searched in my bag for the doctor's prescription slip. I found it and handed it to my mother. "Here, it's something about some pain reliever or something, but we picked it up on the way here." I pulled out the small bottle. "See?"

She nodded. "Okay. Well, why don't you go take a dose, and then go rest for a while? You can say hi to your father and sister later. I'll see if Tanya can come around later, as well, okay?"

Tanya was the daughter of Duke and Duchess Denali, who lived just down the road from us. She was also my fiancée. Her parents were good friends of my parents, so they were always over. It wasn't long before I fell for Tanya. I loved her, simple as that.

I shrugged. "Sounds good to me." I kissed her cheek. "See you later."

***~*O*~***

When I came down a little while later, I found everyone in the large family room on the first floor. The spacious room was where we spent most of our time, when my father wasn't in meetings or we weren't at some formal party or whatever.

My father was sitting in one of the large armchairs reading a novel; my mother was at her small desk over by the floor-to-ceiling windows, hunched over something. She was probably drawing the garden again; that was one of her favorite things to do. My younger sister, Rosalie, was sitting in the other armchair…erm; she was sitting on the lap of Emmett, who was sitting in the armchair.

Rosalie _adored _Emmett. She looked up to him like another older brother. He, in return, thought of her like a little sister, since he'd didn't have any other siblings to begin with. She was talking animatedly with him, like only a ten year old can.

Anyway, when Rosalie saw me enter the room, a huge grin erupted over her face, and soon I was attacked by a whirl of blond hair as she ran and leapt into my arms. "Edward! Oh, I missed you! Are you okay?"

I chuckled and squeezed her before pulling back. "I missed you, too, Rose. Did you survive without me?"

She gave an exaggerated sigh, "Ugh, _barely_. I didn't have anyone to go horseback riding with me!"

I chuckled. "Oh, no. That must have been a tragedy."

"It was!" She took a huge breath and started talking about how she spent her three days without me and when I looked up, everyone else was chuckling silently as they listened to her. When she was done with her story, Rose ran back over to sit on Emmett's lap, and I headed over to where my mother was still drawing.

"Mom?"

She turned. "Yes, Edward?"

"Did you get a hold of Tanya?"

She nodded. "Yes. She and her parents are coming later, just a little dinner, that's all."

I chuckled. Knowing my mother, it wasn't going to be a "little dinner". She was going to go all out, as usual. "Well, I guess I'll see her then." I turned to face Rosalie. "Hey, Rose." She perked up and looked at me. "I think I owe you a date with the horses, _Madame_. Care to join me?"

She grinned and nodded. I held her hand as we walked out of the room and up the stairs to our rooms so that we could get changed.

When she emerged a few minutes later, she was wearing a pair of jeans, a white long sleeve shirt and her riding boots. Her maid, Violet, did her hair- a French braid down the middle of her head- and had tied a ribbon at the end. She giggled when she saw me.

"Edward, we match." I faked a gasped and looked down. I had purposefully matched her. "Well, whaddya know."

She giggled. "Edward, you're so funny."

I chuckled and kissed the top of her head. "Only to you, Rosie."

***~*O*~***

We rode to my favorite spot, a clearing in the south woods, which were a little closer to civility than the north woods, so not as many large woodland animals were there. The clearing was full of small wildflowers, so Rosalie picked a small bouquet to take back to our mom. Our horses nibbled on the grass near the base of one of the trees in the clearing.

When she was done picking the bouquet, she placed it in the saddle bag attached to her horse, Black Queen. As you can imagine, Black Queen was a black mare, but she had a white splash on her forehead that looked eerily like a crown. Thus, the name Black Queen. My horse, on the other hand, was a stallion. He had a golden colored coat and had a chocolate brown mane. He had the same chocolaty brown on his legs, which made socks on his legs. I had named him Apollo on a whim, just because his coat reminded me of the Greek god of the sun.

"Edward?"

"Yeah?" I called from my spot in one of the trees. Rosalie was sitting at the base of the tree, weaving a crown of flowers. "Do you…like your scars?"

I looked down at Rose, to see her staring back at me. "What kind of question is that?"

She shrugged. "I don't know. I was just curious."

I chuckled and ran a hand through my hair. "I don't know, Rose. I guess they're okay. I mean, I _don't _like them because, y'know, they're _scars_. Most people don't like scars. But I don't know. They're okay."

"I think they look cool…" she mumbled. I smiled and jumped down from the tree.

"You do?" I lifted her chin up so that I was looking her in the eyes. She had looked down, becoming very fixated on her crown.

"Yeah…" she still mumbled.

I smiled. "Rose, that's nothing to be ashamed of. If you like them, then that's all I care about. Just hearing _you_ say that you like them is enough for me."

She smiled, and started to trace a scar on my hand. "Are they just on your face and hand?"

I shook my head. "Nope. They're all over the place on the left side of my body."

Her eyes bugged. "Really?"

I pushed up the sleeve of my shirt, revealing more of the puffy, red lines running up my arm. She traced the lines. "They're so red…" she mumbled.

"Yeah…"

She looked up at me. Her eyes were filled with tears. "Edward…" The tears started to fall.

"Hey," I pulled her into my arms. "It's okay, Rose. There's nothing to cry about. Trust me, I'm fine, okay?"

She sniffed and wiped tears from her eyes. "Yeah, you're right. It's just, you could have _died,_ Edward. Then who would I have played with?"

I smiled and kissed her forehead. "Trust me, Rose. That would have been the least of your worries." I pulled her up and put her on Black Queen, and we headed back towards the castle, just a gray blob from the clearing.

***~*O*~***

By the time Rosalie and I made it back to the castle, Tanya and her parents, the Duke and Duchess Denali, had already arrived. We managed to make it inside unnoticed, by any parents, anyway. I noticed Rosalie's maid, Violet, walking down the hall, so I called to her and asked her to take our boots upstairs for us. She curtsied and headed up the stairs with our shoes in tow.

I held Rosalie's hand as we entered the large family room, to see everyone looking at us expectantly. Mom smiled as we entered, she walked up to us and hugged me. "There you guys are. We've been waiting for you."

I pulled back and kissed her cheek. "Sorry, we got a little sidetracked at the clearing. You know, the flowers blooming and all…" I waved a hand, sort of as an offhanded gesture, but Mom looked interested.

"Really?"

I nodded. "Yeah, Rose even brought you some."

Rosalie pulled the bouquet from behind her back, the bright purples, yellows, and reds lighting up the room brilliantly. Mom gasped.

"Oh, Rosalie! They're beautiful!" She grabbed them and inhaled their smell. "They smell lovely, too. Oh, thank you, you two!"

Rosalie's eyes lit up at our mother's words of praise. She enjoyed doing things like this for Mom; she was just shy about it. She liked it better when I was there to help her, and she wasn't afraid to admit it, either.

Rosalie proceeded to tell Mom about our trip to the clearing, and I walked away from them and towards Tanya, who was standing near the empty fireplace. I greeted her with a kiss on her cheek. "Hey there." I smiled.

She seemed to shy away from the kiss. I raised a brow at her. "Tanya, are you okay?"

She seemed to hesitate, her shockingly blue eyes not really looking at me. "I…" she turned around to look through the windows. She must have seen something that she liked because she turned around and looked at me. "Can I talk to you outside?"

Slightly confused, I nodded and followed her to the doors that led to my mother's rather large garden in the back of the castle. She led me through the leafy maze, where we ended up sitting on a bench at the edge of the garden that overlooked the hill that the castle was seated upon. She turned to look at me, my hands in hers.

"Tanya, is everything all right?"

She was staring at our hands, resting in her lap. I thought I could hear her sniffle and she pulled her head up to look at me, tears pooled in her blue eyes. She pulled a hand from my grasp, and wiped the pooling tears. She looked at me, but not at me. She was looking at the left side of my face, and she lifted a hand to trace the scars.

Then the tears started to fall. "I'm sorry." She whispered.

I was starting to freak out a little. "Tanya, what's the matter?"

"I'm sorry, Edward. I just…" she sighed. "I can't do this."

I was extremely confused. "Do what? Tanya, what are you talking about?"

She looked at me, blue eyes all of a sudden looking angry. "This, Edward!" She made a gesture to my face. "This…these scars! I just can't Edward!"

I stared at her, agape. _No, no, no! This was not happening!_

Tanya continued. "I thought I'd be able to handle you looking like this, but I just _can't _Edward! Think of how bad this would make _us_ look publicly!"

Something seemed to click in my brain when Tanya said that. "So _that's _what this is all about?! You're afraid of what we'll- no, wait. You're afraid of what _you'll _look like publicly if you stay with me. Well, Tanya, if you're really that shallow, that I don't want to do this anymore either. I can't stay with someone like you if you're going to let an _accident_ ruin our relationship."

"Relationship?" She laughed and pulled off the ring that sat on her left ring finger. She threw it at me. I just caught it before it took a dive in a small fountain. "Are you kidding?! Sure, I thought you were hot at first, but I was just in this for the publicity. I mean, really? The daughter of the Duke, engaged to the prince. Kinda classy, don't you think?"

All I could do was stare at her. "You're evil."

She shrugged and stared at her nails, as if she was looking for defects. "What are ya going to do about it?"

I shook my head. "I'm done. And to think I thought I _loved _you." I got up and left her in the garden, and walked through the front doors, where the parents had gathered. My mom was startled at my abrupt appearance.

"Edward?"

I shook my head. "Later, Mom."

I heard her call my name again as I ran up the stairs, two at a time. "Edward, what's going on?"

When I reached my room, I paced for who knows how long before I ended up in front of my large mirror that hung on the door that led to my closet. Tanya's words rang in my mind as I stared at my scarred reflection.

_These scars, Edward!_

_ I thought I'd be able to handle you looking like this…_

Angered beyond belief, I searched around my room for something small, I came up with a small rock, about the size of a ping pong ball, that I had found in a pond in another small clearing in the woods when I was about twelve. I took one look at the rock, and then threw it at the mirror, which broke, thousands of cracks appearing in the glass.

As I looked at my broken reflection in the mirror, more words came to mind, but none of them Tanya's.

_I think they look cool…_

_ If you like them, then that's all I care about. Just hearing you say that you like them is enough for me._

As my words and Rosalie's rang in my head, I knew it was only Rosalie who would see the scars in a good light. Everyone else would see them as Tanya saw them:

No good.

Ugly.

I fell asleep on top of my bed, not changing. The little ten year old that was somewhere in the castle was my only reminder that just one person saw me in a different light than the rest of society would. The castle was my only safe haven now.

_**So what'd you think of it? Loved it? Hated it? Let me know! I want to know who's with me on this one!**_

_**Till next time: Penny**_


	2. Chapter 2

_**Hi! I hope you enjoyed the first chapter, but now onto the second!**_

_**Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight. Never will, no matter how many times I wish I did.**_

**BPOV**

"Here you go, Mrs. Webber, enjoy your new book!"

The lady across the counter from me smiled as I handed her the bag. "Thank you, Bella. Have a good day!" I waved as she left the store.

It was a typical rainy June day in northern Washington State. The rain was a constant downpour, and it made all the greenery look like we lived on an alien planet- it was almost too much green.

I was the owner of the _only _bookstore in the small town where I lived: Forks. It was in the upper part of the Olympic Peninsula of Washington State. I loved it.

I had lived with my dad most of my life, but I recently moved into the condo above my store. I never knew my mom. She had died of cancer when I was very little, like thirteen months, or something like that. So, I was the only child of the Police Chief of this small town, and I was perfectly okay with that. However, my dad needed me. He was a terrible cook, but he was great at grilling fish. If we did everything his way, he'd be eating fish for every meal for the rest of his life. As it turns out, his friend, Billy, had a friend named Sue who was a very sweet lady, and would come every once in a while to check on my dad to make sure he had food. I think my dad and Sue were growing sweet on each other. We weren't very good at expressing our feelings to each other, but we worked well with the silence. When we did find things to talk about, we could talk for hours.

The quiet voice of Mat Kearney crooned through the building as I gazed out the front windows of my small store. My best friend, Alice, had helped me start this place after I had graduated from Dartmouth in the middle of May. Sure, we both had majored in English, but we had wanted to own our own bookstore since we were little. And our wish came true when I was presented with this little property when I graduated two years early at the age of 20. My dad was so proud of me, he'd felt the urge to do something for me.

We had worked like crazy for the past month, and today, June 24th, the store, _Eclipse_, had finally opened. I wasn't expecting too many people to come to the opening, but we had actually had quite a few people come in. It seemed that they liked the mix of a bookstore with a café. Alice had thought it would be a good idea to set aside a part of the store with tables and chairs so that people could catch up with their book or the news or whatever. It seemed to be working pretty well so far.

Speaking of Alice, I had to call her to remind her to come in and work, but it turns out I didn't need to. As soon as I pulled out my iPhone, my spiky-haired, hyper best friend appeared in my store, tugging her boyfriend, Jasper behind her. Her electric blue eyes were shining, and she was clutching her iPad in the arm that wasn't attached to Jasper. "Bella!" she cried as she jumped over the counter.

I laughed at her exuberance. "Alice! Calm down! I'd like to…y'know, keep this store for more than a day, girl."

Jasper laughed. "I've been telling her that since she picked me up. She's all hyped up about something."

Alice glared at her boyfriend. "Go behind your counter and sell some muffins or something, you."

Jasper just rolled his eyes at her as he smiled and kissed her cheek as he grabbed his apron from under the counter. "As you wish, ma'am."

Alice sighed for a second as she smiled at her boyfriend, but then she turned around to face me, excitement on her face again. "Guess what I just read?"

I smiled. "I don't know, but I'm guessing it wasn't a book?"

She nodded. "Yup. But, it _was _in the news! Have you heard?"

I shook my head. "No…I've been here since 5 this morning getting ready. Remember?"

Her eyes bugged and she checked her watch. "You've been here for _five hours_ already?! …well, anyway, I was sitting in my kitchen eating breakfast and reading my celebrity headlines like I usually do, when this article popped up!" She shoved her iPad in my face, and I grabbed it, looking at the article. A few things caught my attention.

It was from one of Alice's normal tabloids, for starters, but that wasn't what caught my attention. It looked to be more than two pages, but the cover of the article was what first caught me. It was a side profile a boy…no, wait, a man. He looked to be about my age, and my goodness,he was gorgeous. He had a messy tangle of bronze hair and shockingly green eyes- like emeralds. He had a hard expression on his face, like he was very focused on something.

It was the title that caught my attention next. _"Irish Prince Cullen and Duke's Daughter…Done for Good?" _He was a prince? And on top of that…he was Irish? Why was Alice showing me this anyway? "Al, why are you showing me this? You know I don't read this crap anyway. They're never true." I looked up from the screen to see her staring at me.

"Did you flip through the rest of the article?" I did just that.

The article was a few pages, filled mostly with pictures of this prince and what I guessed was the Duke's daughter. She didn't impress me. She was a stereotypical type-A popular chic. She had strawberry blond hair done in some up do in almost every picture. She had piercing blue eyes, but while Alice's were bright and full of energy, hers were dark and cold, like she had a billion other things she could be doing than be standing there with the prince. In other words, I could just tell from pictures that she was a stuck up rich girl. I didn't have to hear anything come from her mouth, I just knew.

I handed Alice back her iPad. "I still don't understand why you made me read that." I told Alice.

She rolled her eyes. "Oh, come _on_, Bella! Three things: Gorgeous. Irish. Prince. I thought you'd be begging me to buy you a ticket to Ireland by now."

I snorted. Sure, he was cute. But what was a prince going to want with someone like me? I was a nobody, who lived in the United States. He was living across the Atlantic Ocean…probably enjoying the perks of being a prince. And on top of that, I didn't even know him! I wasn't going to drop everything and go to Ireland, just because they happened to have a super gorgeous prince. No thank you. "Thanks, but no thanks, Alice." I turned to grab a box of books and headed out into the rows of bookshelves to stock some more books.

Alice pouted as she followed me. "Aw, Bella. You take the fun out of everything." I turned and raised a brow at her.

"What did you think I was going to do with the article, anyway? It's just an article, and about nothing that I care about, anyway."

Alice gave me a cheeky grin. "Sure, Bella. That's just what you want yourself to believe. When secretly, you're going to go home tonight and look up tons and tons of pictures of him."

I glared at Alice, but I couldn't hold it for long, just because she was still grinning at me. I rolled my eyes and gave the box of books to her. "Here, put these away."

***~*O*~***

As the weeks went by, the rain continued to fall, and Alice continued to pester me about the gorgeous Irish prince. He continued to make appearances in the tabloids, but he was always with his family, or who I assumed were his parents. His eyes contained a certain sort of hardness to them; they weren't shining like I had seen in the pictures of the first article Alice showed me.

But, there was one curious thing I saw about all the pictures Alice showed me of him…they were always of the right side of his face, never his left. It didn't bother me that much; I was just kind of curious about why the pictures were always like that.

It wasn't until a few weeks before my 21st birthday, September 13, that I found out that Alice was plotting.

She came rushing into the store at 10 a.m. as I was pouring new cups of coffee for an elderly couple that was sitting in the café. Alice ran up and tackled me, almost making me drop the coffee pot. I laughed at her and pushed her back a little. "Alice, what has you all excited this morning? You're not usually up for another hour..." I checked my watch. "Scratch that, you were supposed to work this morning, weren't you?"

She nodded and held up a stiff-looking envelope that was larger than most normal ones. "Yeah, but that's not the point. It came, Bella! It came! I knew it was going to! I had a feeling!"

I quirked an eyebrow at her. I hated when she got her "feelings". They were usually right, but right now, they were just the opposite of what I needed at the moment. "What came, Alice?"

She opened her mouth to say something, but then she looked around at the store. She eyed the elderly couple drinking their coffee and then seemed to think better of speaking. She dragged me into my office in the back and she shut and locked the door. She leaned against the door and held up the envelope, grinning at me.

"Alice! What is going on?!"

She rolled her eyes at me. "Wow, Bella, you're so impatient. Here," she held the envelope out to me. "It's for you, anyway."

"Me? Alice, what did you _do_?" I glanced at the envelope in my hands nervously. My hands shook as I opened it, and I almost gave myself a paper cut. When I finally got it open, I pulled out a stack of papers, and two smaller, thicker pieces of paper…with tons of information on it. "Alice? Why are there airplane tickets in this envelope?"

She giggled. "Just read the letter, silly." Right…okay, the letter. Where's the letter? Ah, there it is. I read aloud:

"_Dear Ms. Swan:_

_On behalf of Dublin the View Vacations and more importantly, His Majesty King Carlisle and Her Majesty Queen Esme, we are proud to announce that you have won a free vacation to visit beautiful Ireland from September 20 through the 30…_"

I looked up at Alice. "Alice! What did you _do_?!"

She giggled. "You're going to Ireland, silly. Don't worry; I've got everything taken care of already. I've talked to your dad, and he's totally okay with it. He said you needed a break anyway, you've been working yourself too hard for the last couple of months." She gestured to the letter. "Keep reading!"

I sighed and looked at the letter.

"_All expenses paid for, you and five others will be taking the trip of your life, visiting many sights of beautiful Ireland, concluding with a one night stay in the palace of the King and Queen! Your flight tickets have been included with this letter along with a rough draft of your schedule once you arrive in Ireland! Hoping to see you on the 20__th__:_

_Jane Clark_

_Owner of Dublin the View Vacations_"

I looked up at Alice and smiled, shaking my head. "You're unbelievable, you know that, right?"

She shrugged. "I know, but you can't really do anything about it, because…" she pulled out another envelope. "I'm going too!"

At that, I screamed and ran to hug her. "I really hate you, Alice. Just so you know."

Alice laughed. "I know, but we're going to have so much fun!"

I laughed and pulled back. I looked at the letter and the two tickets. "We're going to Ireland!"

***~*O*~***

The weeks preceding the trip flew by quickly. Before I knew it, Alice and I were sitting in our seats on the airplane, ready to depart to New York City, where we would switch planes and join the other four people before flying straight to Dublin.

Alice and I slept the whole way to New York. We had crammed our headphones in our ears to shut out the noises of little kids screaming for crayons, crackers, and who knows what else. By the time we arrived in New York, I was feeling a lot better than what I had in Seattle. Our flight had left at four this morning- probably to deal with the time change better- but the sleep on the plane had helped a ton.

We met the other four people in our group when we were sitting in the chairs by our gate. It wasn't hard to figure out who they were; it was four girls huddled in one section of chairs, all giggling about how they were going to meet Prince Edward. That stopped me. I turned to Alice.

"Prince _Edward_, Alice?"

She looked at me, grinning. "Hey, if you read that article, then you'd have remembered his name. You don't have to worry about me, Bella. I've got my man, although I think Jasper would appreciate my good taste in gorgeous specimens of male royalty." I punched her. She laughed. "Come on, Bella. Can you just relax for these ten days? We're going to Ireland for crying out loud! You're going to wring yourself to pieces if you don't let go for a bit."

As Alice said this, we sat down on the opposite side of the girls. One of them turned around when Alice mentioned Ireland. "You're going on the Ireland trip, too?" She questioned us. She had curly brown hair and she was chewing obnoxiously on a piece of bubble gum. She stuck her hand out. "I'm Jessica. These are Lauren, Katie, and Angela." She pointed to the girls surrounding her respectively. The girl named Angela looked eerily familiar. I couldn't remember where I'd seen her before. "We're all from Chicago. What about you?"

Alice took this one. "I'm Alice, and this is my best friend, Bella. We're from Forks." They stared blankly back at us…except for the girl whose name was Angela. "I know where that is! My aunt and uncle live there! My uncle's the pastor of the little church just outside of town."

I smiled and looked at Alice. I looked back at Angela. "Your aunt and uncle are the Webbers?"

She nodded. "Yup. I'm Angela Webber. I went to college at the state university in Seattle. I spent quite a few weekends at their house."

I laughed. "I thought I recognized you! My dad is the Police Chief there."

Angela smiled and came to sit over by Alice and I, while the other three girls turned and continued to chat about ways to get the prince to notice them. It turned out that Angela actually knew the other three girls. They had all gone to high school together. Angela was living in an apartment in Chicago, Katie was a striving dance student at Julliard (she'd traveled the shortest out of the six of us, obviously), and Jessica and Lauren were taking classes at a community college outside of Chicago.

By the time our plane boarded, Alice, Angela, and I were laughing so hard our sides were hurting. I really enjoyed Angela's company. It also turned out that I would get to enjoy her company for a little while longer. Her seat was right next to mine in the row of three, Alice sitting on the other side of me. It was the best plane ride I'd had in a while.

***~*O*~***

By the time we arrived in Dublin, it was almost midnight. We got our bags from baggage claim and then headed out to the sidewalk, a group of six very awake, very confused girls. Looking around for someone to notice us, and getting a take of scenery while I was at it, I noticed a young woman leaning against a limousine. She wasn't very tall; she was easily shorter than my 5'6. She was probably around Alice's 4'11, maybe just a tad taller. She was wearing a pair of khaki pants and a forest green polo. There was a logo on the front left, right where a pocket would normally go. I thought I saw a script "D" and "V", so I made my guesses and headed over to the woman.

As I approached her, she looked up at me. I noticed her shirt- it said "Dublin the View Vacations". I smiled. "Are you Jane Clark?"

She nodded, "Yes I am. Jane Clark at your service. You must be one of the girls who won the vacation."

I nodded. "Yes, I'm Bella Swan, and the other girls are over there," I pointed to where Alice and the other girls were huddled together.

Jane smiled. "Alright then! If you're all here, then we'll get on our way, you can just place your bags in the seat area. There's plenty of room." She climbed inside the car, and I motioned for the rest of the girls to head over.

As we climbed inside the limousine, we all 'ooh'ed and 'ah'ed at the nice car that Jane told us would be our vehicle for the next ten days. Talk about riding in style!

As the car started to move, Alice found the sun roof. She gasped, "Bella! You gotta try this!" She was standing in the sun roof, her body from her waist up sticking out of the vehicle.

I gasped, "Alice! Get down! You're gonna hurt something!" Alice rolled her eyes.

"Bella, remember what I told you at the airport? Yeah, that was supposed to start when we left New York."

I giggled and rolled my eyes. "Fine, but if I break something, it's your fault." And so I climbed up to stick out of the limousine with Alice. She was right. Even though the wind was blowing in my face, I could get used to it. Dublin was _beautiful _at night. The street lights gave the road a yellowish hue, and it looked like it had recently rained, so the lights glowed off the pavement. Dark figures of statues and buildings rushed past me, and I couldn't wait to come back later and see everything.

When Alice and I pulled ourselves back in the car, Jane had just gotten off the phone with someone. "Ladies, we're going to be arriving at your hotel in just a little bit. Tomorrow, the limo will be here to pick you up at…" she checked her watch. "One o'clock pm. So, feel free to rest and eat, we'll tell you what you'll be doing when we pick you up."

As she finished speaking, the car rolled to a stop outside a building I could only describe as beautiful. It just seemed to fit here…wherever it was we were. I climbed out, and was met with a sign that said, "Pembroke Townhouse Hotel". I laughed. "This is where we're staying?"

Jane smiled. "Yes, until the night in the castle. Trust me; this is all compliments of the Royal Family themselves. They do this every year. The Queen especially loves this trip for the girls that come on it."

I laughed and shook my head. It was because of someone I didn't know that I was standing here right now, and they were willing to pay for my flight _and _my housing. What did I do to deserve this?

Jane led us inside and to the lobby desk, where a man who was probably a weight lifter in another life was sitting, staring at a computer screen. Jane cleared her throat. The man freaked out for a second before regaining his composure and looking at Jane.

"Yes?"

Jane smiled at the man. "These," she gestured at us, "are special guests of the King and Queen. They have two rooms booked. They should be under the name 'Jane Clark'." The man eyed us, I saw that his name was Felix, and turned to his computer.

"Ah, 'Jane Clark'," he said. "Two Mini-Suites, yes?"

Jane nodded. "Yes."

Felix handed four room keys to Jane and she turned around to face us. "These are your room keys. Please do not lose them, but if you happen to do so, Felix," she gestured to the man, "has copies." She handed one to Jessica. "Jessica, you, Katie, and Lauren will be sharing room 301, and you," she looked at me and handed me a key. "And Alice and Angela will be sharing room 302." She dispersed the other two keys. "I'll be back with the limo at one; breakfast is from 7 to 10." And with that, she was out the door and back into the limo.

I looked at Alice and Angela and we shrugged. We headed upstairs to the room, and well…yeah, the room was gorgeous. The room had white walls, but there was a giant, comfy-looking bed. There was a little desk and a counter with a sink, microwave, and a fully-stocked mini fridge. There was a nice TV in the corner, and we had a nice view of the street. There was a second level, so we climbed the stairs, and found a nice, comfy couch that pulled out into a bed, and there was another TV up there.

As we watched a movie on the bed downstairs, Alice fished a bag of microwaveable popcorn from her bag, so we all fought over the food once it was popped. Once the movie was done, we decided to get a little sleep before breakfast. I set the alarm on my phone for 8:00, so that we could take quick showers and then head downstairs for breakfast.

As we were getting ready, I asked about sleeping arrangements. Alice and I let Angela decide where she wanted to sleep because Alice and I decided we'd sleep together whether it was on the large couch upstairs or the bed. Angela said she'd take the couch, so Alice and I crawled into the bed, and all three of us were out almost instantly. Wow, it had been one seriously crazy day. I slept a dreamless sleep, my excitement of the next day hidden until a better time.

_**So? What'd you think?**_

_**Just a note: RL is going to get very busy for me very soon, so I'll try to get the chapters posted every two weeks or so, but I can't promise anything. This chapter will be up on the blog soon! It will have information on the hotel where the girls are staying if you want to check it out.**_

_**Please review! **_

_**Penny**_


	3. Chapter 3

_**Hello lovelies, I am so very sorry that this update is beyond late. I hope you'll forgive me:) Anyway, I'll let you get to reading now.**_

**BPOV**

Those ten days flew by more quickly than what I wanted them to. We visited so many different places in Dublin; I thought my head was going to explode. There were parks and museums and concert halls and more shopping than I thought possible. Alice and I both bought things for Jasper and my dad. Alice had found a neat little coffee shop, and bought me a birthday present of a ton of different types of coffee for me to try at the café. We ended up going back there for an early lunch one day just us two and Angela.

Angela was really sweet and so much fun to hang around. We talked a bit about her life in Chicago, and how she was thinking of moving out to Forks to help with her aunt and uncle. Alice and I were thrilled, and we told her we'd hire her for our bookstore.

I had brought my laptop, and since Alice had forgotten hers, she would Skype with Jasper every night. If she'd had her way, she'd Skype with him for hours on end, but as it was, I'd only allotted her a half hour slot each night; so that I could upload all the photos I'd taken from the day.

***~*O*~***

It was raining the day we were heading to the palace of the King and Queen. In the outline we had received with our letters, we had been told that we were supposed to bring nice clothes to wear to the castle, but the next day, we could wear whatever. So, I had brought my nice white blouse and my blue pencil skirt. I had a thin red belt that went with the skirt, and I had brought my simple cream colored heels. I had brought my trench coat that had been a Christmas present from Alice's parents, and now I was glad I had it to keep my outfit dry.

After Alice had pinned my hair back and I had finished packing all my stuff, I headed downstairs to the lobby, where Jane was talking with Jessica, Lauren, and Katie. Jane was dressed in black pinstripe dress pants and a white blouse with a black jacket over it. I could see heels peeking out under the hems of her pants. I was guessing that Jessica and Lauren had read the letter, but were only interested in grabbing the prince's attention, so they were dressed in short khaki skirts and high black heels. I couldn't see their tops because they were wearing rain jackets, but I didn't really want to know. Katie was dressed a little more simply. She was wearing black dress pants and a sea green blouse underneath a black sweater that had a big white flower on it. She had a matching flower pinned into her hair, and she smiled when I complimented her on her outfit.

When Alice and Angela appeared in the lobby, we all headed outside towards the limo. Felix was waiting out by the car with an umbrella, and was kindly placing our bags in the trunk of the car for us.

When we climbed in the car, we noticed that we weren't alone… someone else was in the car. It was a woman, but it wasn't Jane. She was wearing an outfit that just screamed designer, but the way she held herself…she was clearly saying "I'm more important than you, but I have a caring side as well…don't get on my bad side." She had thick, wavy caramel-colored hair, and soft green eyes. She had a soft smile playing on her lips, but if her eyes were any teller, I'd say she was the queen. The first words out of Jane's mouth proved she was.

"Ladies, may I present Queen Esme."

Mouths agape, we awkwardly bowed as best as we could while sitting in the limo. The queen smiled, "I'm very happy to meet you all. Have you enjoyed your stay in Dublin?"

We all nodded our heads profusely, and Jane and the queen laughed. "Good," the queen said. "I'd really like to get to know you all before we arrive at the castle. I just have a few things to say first."

We all looked at her expectantly. "Now, when we arrive, you will be taken on a tour of the castle. Afterwards, there will be a short break time before dinner starts. I would expect _all _of you to wear something nice." She eyed Jessica and Lauren with a quirked brow. "After dinner, you will have time to yourselves. We usually spend after dinner in the family room, and you are more than welcome to join us. You are allowed to retreat to your rooms whenever, just please, be in your rooms by midnight. It makes things easier for the servants. Breakfast is served at 8:30 sharp tomorrow morning, we will have people come and wake you up. Again, you are requested to be dressed, so no pajamas, please. Any questions?"

She looked around the car, but we were all looking at each other. Jessica and Lauren were fidgeting in one corner, and they probably had a million or two questions, but they somehow held their tongues. "Ok, so, let's get to introductions then, shall we?"

She looked around, and nodded to Jessica. "Let's start with you, shall we? Just state your name and where you're from."

"Um…" Jessica started. "I'm Jessica Stanley, and I'm from Chicago, Illinois."

Lauren was next. "I'm Lauren Mallory. And I'm from Chicago, as well."

The queen nodded. "So, two from Chicago? I went there once…very windy city. Very nice, though." Alice, Angela, and I smiled at the queen's comment. She looked at Katie next. "And you, dear?"

"I'm Katie Marshall. I'm currently studying at Julliard in New York City to be a professional dancer."

The queen smiled. "Oh, dancing? I love the arts. They're so much fun."

Katie blushed, and Angela started to go. "I'm Angela Webber, and I live in Chicago right now."

Alice cleared her throat, announcing, "I'm Alice Brandon, and this is my best friend, Bella Swan. We're both from Forks, Washington."

The queen smiled. "What an interesting town name. Where exactly is that?"

I laughed. I wasn't surprised she didn't know where it was. "It's in the upper most part of the Olympic Peninsula. It kinda looks like this," I gestured to the rainy weather outside, "all the time."

"Well that must be dull, all that rain all the time."

I smiled. "You get used to it. I can say I've pretty much fallen in love with the green."

"Excellent. Now, we should be arriving in a little bit, so I'll leave you to yourselves for a while."

I looked out the window, and saw that we had left the lights of Dublin far behind and were now rolling down a road lined with woods on both sides. I leaned against Alice's shoulder, all of a sudden feeling a little tired. The pattering of the rain against the window was comforting, and soon I was asleep.

***~*O*~***

**EPOV**

"Edward, calm down. They're expected to arrive very soon."

I sighed and ran a hand through my hair. I looked at my father sitting in his chair, reading a newspaper. It was so easy to forget about royalty in times like this. But then, reality usually came crashing down quickly, like now, as Dad's right hand man, Alistair, walked in. Dad put down his paper expectantly.

"Sir," Alistair started. "The Prime Minister is here. He wishes to talk to you immediately."

Dad got up from his chair and looked at me. "Tell your mother that I had urgent business to attend to, and I hope to be back in time for dinner."

I nodded. "Alright." And I left the room after them, but instead of heading to the south end of the castle like they were, where there were two large rooms: one was a rather large meeting room, and the other was the throne room, I headed back towards the front entry, and up the stairs, where I hoped to watch for the car that was bringing six girls to spend the night in the castle. While I wasn't very excited for them to arrive, I was insanely curious, and I was hoping to watch from a distance.

I jumped when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned to see Rosalie looking at me. "Edward, what are you doing?"

I smiled. "I'm just waiting for Mom to get back, Rosie."

Rosalie's eyes lit up. "Oh yeah! Those girls are coming tonight, aren't they? I hope they're nice."

I could hear the desperation in Rosalie's voice. This would be the fifth time we'd hosted this little trip. It was always girls, and they were always more interested in seeing me than they were in seeing Dublin…or anything else for that matter. It kind of ticked me off. It was amazing how many times Rosalie had been ignored when she tried to say hi to the visitors. She was always hoping just one of them would say hi to her, but nope, not one, ever.

I smiled, and mussed her hair, and then, I heard the door open. I turned around, and felt Rosalie hiding behind me and peering from behind my shoulder. Mom was the first one in, and she handed her umbrella to James, one of our butlers.

"Evening, Madame. How was the trip?"

She laughed. "Fine, thank you, James. Would you kindly help these ladies, James?"

He nodded. "Yes, Madame." He set the umbrella down and whistled, which brought two more butlers to the door, Demitri and Alec. They held doors open and grabbed bags as six laughing, squealing girls walked into the entry hall. I heard their gasps as they examined the entry hall, and I examined them.

The first two, a brunette and a blonde, were both wearing short khaki skirts and black heels. Their red jackets were in their arms, and the brunette was wearing a sky blue top while the blonde was wearing a long sleeve black shirt with a red scarf.

The next three were a little more…simply dressed than the first two. There was a brunette with a big, white flower in her hair, and another brunette that was wearing a simple navy blue dress. The third girl, a petite girl with spiky black hair was exactly that; petite. She was short. I'm pretty sure Rosalie was taller than she was, and Rose was 10!

The final girl stunned me for a second. I had the strangest feeling I had seen her before. Her whole face lit up as she entered the room and handed her umbrella to Demitri, and she lifted a small hand to brush her damp, mahogany colored hair away from her heart shaped face….wait. Mahogany colored hair? Eyes….eyes, eyes, eyes….Chocolate brown. God, they were so deep. They looked like they held so much emotion.

I kept racking my brain for where I had seen her before when I figured it out. She was the face I had seen before I passed out the first time after being attacked by the bear. Was she just a figment of my imagination? Was I going insane?

I was lost for a second before I felt a tapping on my shoulder. It was Rosalie again. "Edward?"

"Hmm?"

"I like this group."

I smiled. "I think I do, too, Rosie."

I turned back to see the girls all huddled together, when Mom reappeared. "Alright, ladies, before you head on your tour, I'm going to tell you a few things first. "First, the room arrangements: you have a two to a room. I will let you decide who you want to share with and you will get your room on your tour. Second, there a plenty of things for you to do while you are here, but please, do _not _go into the north woods." She pointed in the direction of the woods with a stern expression on her face. "Those are the only two things I have for you, do you have any questions?" The first brunette shot a hand up. "Yes?"

The brunette popped a bubble from her piece of gum in her mouth before answering. "Yeah, uh, when are we gonna meet the prince?"

Oh God. I slapped a hand to my forehead, and I could hear Rosalie laughing in my ear. I turned to glare at her. She slapped a hand over her mouth, but was still giggling as Mom answered the girl. "Actually, the prince is out of town on an important matter of business right now." I quirked a brow in the direction of my mother, but I smiled at the sighs of disappointment that came from the brunette and blonde up front.

Rosalie was still giggling, so I turned and put a finger to my mouth, telling her to shut up. She still didn't quit giggling, so I glared at her, and picked her up, flipping her over my shoulder, and running her to my room. She squealed loudly when I picked her up, but I raced quickly to the room.

When we got there, I flopped her onto my bed. She laughed. I was still glaring at her, but then I couldn't hold it. I started laughing, too. "Rosalie! You gotta be quiet, I'm not here, remember?"

She tried to control her laughter, but it wasn't working. "Not…here. Got...it."

She held an expressionless face for a second before erupting into another fit of giggles. I laughed along with her, but then I covered her mouth with my hand. Someone was outside the room. I put a finger to my mouth, telling her to be quiet, and then I crept to the door, put my ear against it.

I could hear Mom talking outside; she must be giving the tour. She stopped right by my door, but she didn't open my door; she opened the one across the hall. "Alice and Bella? This will be your room." I could hear footsteps as two girls entered the room across the hall, and then I heard the door close. Mom spoke again. "Now, Angela and Katie, your room is this way…" and she led them down the hall. I could hear complaints coming from two other girls about why the rest of them weren't staying by Alice and Bella, and I figured it was the two girls from before. I hoped I could go the rest of this day and tomorrow without ever seeing those two.

I moved away from the door and headed to where Rosalie was checking out something on my laptop on my bed. I tickled her when I climbed up on the bed. "Sounds like I have neighbors, Rosie. Maybe we should go say 'hi'?"

Rosalie gasped. "No, Edward! We can't…I mean, _you _can't," she giggled.

I rolled my eyes. "Aw, come on, Rosalie!"

She laughed, but quickly set her expression in a stern look. "No, Edward. You heard Mom, _you're not here_. You even said so yourself, so ha!"

I frowned at her, which got her to laugh. "Fine. You win. Will you go say hi, though? Who knows, maybe they're nice…"

She smiled. "You think so?" She gasped. "Can I see if they want to go horseback riding?"

I nudged her towards the door. "Sure, but you're never going to know if they're nice or not unless you go…right now!" I tickled her and she squealed, racing for the door.

***~*O*~***

**BPOV**

The castle was beautiful…to say the least. The stone outside made the building seem creepy and beautiful all at the same time. I had seen a large white building down past a hill, and it made me wonder if they had stables…well, duh. They probably did.

There were so many rooms; I was surprised that they didn't invest in a map for the place. There was the kitchen, which was amazing. They had four stoves that had six burners each, and there were gigantic fridges filled with food to feed an army.

The large family room on the first floor had a gigantic fireplace, and I could imagine its warmth on a cold winter's day. There were paintings all around the room, and above the fireplace hung a family portrait. Besides the King and Queen were two other people. One I recognized as the handsome face of Prince Edward from the magazine photos. I was still curious why they would only show the right side of his face; the left side in the picture looked as perfect as the right. The other person in the portrait was a little girl. She looked to be about eight or so, with pretty blonde hair that hung at her shoulders and eyes so blue they looked almost violet.

We had gotten a tour of the throne room, and the magnificent library up on the second floor. Alice and I's room was also on the second floor, but strangely, we were the only ones in the hallway. The queen had never mentioned the other two rooms in the hall, one which was directly across the way from ours.

Anyway, my curiosity kinda went away after Alice and I entered our room. The room was a rich red color, and it had a clean, white carpet. The four poster bed in the middle of the room looked to be king size, and the wall across from the one with the door was a giant window. Huge golden colored drapes framed the window, and we had a magnificent view of the most amazing garden. There seemed to be any and every flower you could think of that could grow in an Irish climate and there were three small fountains and down below the hill that the castle was on, there was a small woods. I think it was the north woods, but I wasn't sure. Two armchairs sat on either side of a fireplace that already had a cheery-looking fire going inside.

I tossed my jacket onto one of the armchairs and flung my shoes off. I looked at Alice and we laughed, flopping on our backs onto the bed. I was so close to falling asleep when I hear a soft knocking on the door. Alice and I sat up, and I called "come in."

A small girl peered around the door, and I recognized her as the girl from the portrait downstairs. "Hi," she called.

I smiled. "Hi, you must be Princess Rosalie, am I right?"

She smiled and nodded. "Can I come in?"

I nodded and patted the bed. "Sure, come on up, there's plenty of room."

She ran into the room, and sprang up onto the bed and crawled beside me. "Who are you?" she asked once she got situated.

"Me? Oh, I'm Bella. This is Alice," I gestured to my best friend who was busy getting occupied with Rosalie's long hair.

"Her hair is so pretty…" Alice cooed.

Rosalie giggled. "Thank you. My maid, Violet, does it all the time. She does it however I want it done. I like getting my hair done." She looked at me. "You have really pretty hair, too."

I blushed. "Thanks. Alice likes to do my hair all the time. Sometimes I _don't _like it."

I glared at Alice, but she just stuck her tongue out at me. Rosalie laughed.

"You guys are funny."

Alice and I smiled at each other before looking at the little girl. "Rosalie, how old are you?"

"I'm ten years old!" She looked up at me. "How old are you?"

"I just turned twenty-one sixteen days ago. My birthday was on the 13th of this month. Alice is twenty."

Rosalie gasped. "Edward is twenty-one! But he had a really bad accident on his birthday…it was really scary." Tears started pooling in her eyes. I awkwardly gave her a hug.

"Hey, Rose. It's okay. He's obviously better now, right?" She smiled and nodded. "Alright. The accident is done, he's all better. He wouldn't want to see you like this, would he?" She smiled and hugged me back.

"Thanks, Bella."

I smiled. "No problem, sweetheart."

Rosalie gasped all of a sudden. "I just remembered! Do you want to go horseback riding with me? We still have a while until dinner, and it stopped raining. It'll be so much fun!"

I looked at Alice. She snorted. "Don't look at me. Sorry, Rose, I'd love to, but I'm really tired. I actually think I'm going to take a little nap before dinner."

Rosalie looked at me. I smiled and nodded. "Sure, Rose. I'll go with you." I looked down at my outfit. "I guess I need to change, huh?"

Rosalie laughed and nodded. "Yeah. You can change in my room with me, if you want. We have to wear nice clothes to dinner, anyway, and I think Alice would like that, too if we left." She peered behind me to look at Alice, who moaned an affirmative from her position amongst the pillows.

Rosalie laughed and I grabbed a pair of jeans and a long sleeve shirt. When I started to grab my tennis shoes, Rosalie stopped me. "Oh, no, you don't want those shoes. I know where I can get you a pair of riding boots!"

She grabbed my hand and led me out the door, but as I walked out the door, Alice called from the bed. "Bella!"

I turned to look at her. "Yeah?"

"Can I use your computer?"

I smiled. "Sure, go ahead." I closed the door behind me.

Rosalie looked confused. "She needs your computer to take a nap? She's weird."

I laughed. "No, she probably wants to talk to her boyfriend back home. She really misses him."

"Oh."

I laughed because Rosalie still looked confused.

***~*O*~***

After we changed in her room (which was the other room in my hallway…not the one across from mine, though), Rosalie led me downstairs and out the front door and around the back side of the castle to the large white building I had seen before. Yeah, they were stables. When we entered the stables, I was astounded by how many horses they had. There were so many! Rosalie led me down the aisles, telling me the names of all the horses. There was Penny and Titan and Princeton and so many others. Personally, I think she was just making up the names as she went along, but I was enjoying this little girl's presence immensely.

When we reached the last aisle, Rosalie announced that this was where her family kept their horses. Rosalie led me past her parents' horses. The Queen's was a pretty brown and white pinto named Dasha and the King's was a beautiful Quarter horse named Any Day. Rosalie's horse was next. It was a pretty black mare with a white spot on her forehead that looked strangely like a crown. I laughed when she told me the horse's name was Black Queen.

To say that the next horse was beautiful would be an understatement. He was magnificent. He had a golden coat and a chocolaty brown mane and brown socks running from his hooves halfway up his legs. I stroked his forehead. "He's beautiful."

Rosalie smiled. "That's Edward's horse. His name is Apollo."

I snorted. "Does he have a twin sister named Artemis?"

"Ironically, yes."

…Okay. That didn't come from Rosalie. Excited shivers ran though me and I turned, shock on my face, and came face to face with the person I was told I wasn't going to meet on this trip. And I came face to face with the reason only the right side of his face was in magazines.

_**New update soon, I'm thinking. Yup. *nods head***_

_**Please review! I'd love to know what you think!**_

_**Penny**_


	4. Chapter 4

_**Hello, everyone! I've come with a new update, and I think you're going to like this one! :)**_

_**Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight. I just enjoy playing with the characters.**_

**BPOV**

Prince Edward stood before me, bronze hair in a casual disarray, emerald eyes sparkling. His mouth was cocked in a smirk. The magazines didn't do him any justice. But, while the right side of his face was perfect, the left side was marred with deep, dark red scars. He was wearing a t shirt and jeans, and I could see more scars on his left arm. _"Really bad accident," _Rosalie had said. I wondered what had happened. The scars were now the most noticeable thing about him.

But, despite the marred perfection, I found myself still entranced by him. I felt pity for him because I could see the sadness in his eyes. I could see the pain from rejections because of his scars. Somehow I knew that he had tried relationships with other girls after his accident, but they didn't work out. It sickened me that girls could be that mean about a person's appearance, but it was true.

When I had looked up at him, his expression had turned to one of shock. We stared at each other for who knows how long before…

"Edward!" Rosalie cried. She ran and jumped up into his arms. He smiled as he picked her up.

"Hey there, Rosie. What's up?"

"Not much," she replied. "Bella and I were going to go horseback riding." She gestured to me.

I smiled and gave an awkward wave. "I was just admiring your horse. He's so beautiful."

The prince nodded. "Yes, he's my favorite. I've been riding him for a while."

I nodded, and then suddenly remembered something the queen had said on our tour. "Wait, I thought you were away on important business?"

"I am…erm, I mean, I was. I got back early." He winked at Rosalie, and she giggled, but I just ignored it.

I nodded. "Ah, so will you be joining us for dinner, then?"

He shuffled his feet. "Um, probably not. I still have some other things to take care of first."

I quirked a brow, but answered, "I see. Well, it was nice to meet you, Your Highness. Rosalie, do you want to get going?"

She nodded, and dropped from her brother's arms. She gasped, "Wait," she gestured to the prince for him to lean down, and he did. She whispered something in his ear, and he nodded. She smiled, and then skipped over to me. I watched as the prince turned around and headed back towards the castle. Something told me that he didn't really have other things to take care of. Maybe it was just a feeling, but something told me he was hiding from us…or me.

Rosalie tugged on my hand, and I turned to look down at her. She smiled. "You can ride Artemis. Here, let's get you a saddle and bridle." I followed her to a large storage room that was filled with saddles, bridles, blankets, and any other horse riding equipment you could think of. She handed me a blue riding blanket that had 'Artemis' encrypted in the lower left corner. She also handed me a brown saddle and a bridle, and then she led me to the stall after Apollo. Inside was a beautiful gray horse. She had lighter white spots all over, and her legs were a darker shade of gray. It was so easy to see why this horse had been named Artemis when her brother had been named Apollo. They just fit.

Rosalie eased the horse out of the stall and tied her up to a loop just outside the stall. "Here, you can get started getting her ready. I'll bring Black Queen over." And she left to get her things for her horse, and soon she was bringing her horse over by me.

We finished getting the horses ready quickly. I was surprised what I all remembered from setting up a horse, since I hadn't been horseback riding in a very long time. Rosalie untied the horses, and we climbed on, heading out the large doors and down the hill towards what Rosalie told me was the south woods, which we were allowed to go in.

***~*O*~***

By the time we returned from the ride, it was almost dinner time. We quickly raced back to the castle and hurried up to Rosalie's room. I told her I would change in my room, and I quickly crossed the hall into my room. I slammed the door shut and locked it before facing the room. Alice was staring at me like I had a third eye.

"Bella! What's going on?"

I smiled sheepishly at her. "I…kinda sorta met the prince."

She glared at me. "Shut up. You're lying."

I shook my head. "I'm not. Saw him in the stables when Rosalie was showing me around."

She cocked a brow at me. "Green eyes?"

I nodded. "Gorgeous. And his smirk." I sighed. "I thought I was going to die."

She laughed. "You're too funny. I-"

"He's got scars."

She stopped and looked at me. "What do you mean, 'he's got scars'? Emotional?"

I snorted. "Don't be stupid." I ran my left hand down the left side of my face.

Alice's jaw dropped. "You're kidding."

Tears unexpectedly started falling from my eyes. "No," I whispered. "I think they're all over…at least, all over the left side of his body. They were all over his arm, too." I smiled. "It's not like he acted like they bothered him, though. He was so sweet to Rosalie. She _adores _him."

Alice pointed a finger at me. "I think…you like him, Bella."

"Like him?" I snorted. "Alice, I hardly know him. For all I know, he's probably just…" I sighed. "Yeah, I do like him. I can tell you that already, and I've only spent five minutes in his presence. There's just something about him, Al…"

She smiled and hugged me. "Don't worry, girl. We're gonna be leaving tomorrow. Soon we'll be back in boring, old, rainy Forks with nothing better to do than work at the bookstore."

I glared at her at the mention of my store. She laughed. "I'm kidding, Bella."

I smiled and grabbed my clothes. "Let's get ready for dinner."

***~*O*~***

When Alice and I arrived in the dining room, Rosalie, the queen, and the king were the only other people in the room. Rosalie saw me, and she waved at me. I smiled and waved, and she gestured for me to come over. I dragged Alice along with me, and we made the best curtsies we could to the king and queen. They chuckled and we smiled as we stood up.

"Mom, Dad," Rosalie said, "These are my friends, Alice and Bella."

The queen smiled. "Hello, girls. How do you like your room?"

I smiled. "It's wonderful, Your Majesty. I love the view of the garden we have…is it yours?"

The queen smiled. "Actually, yes. I'm glad you like it. It's my favorite. All the flower bouquets in the castle come from that garden."

"Really?"

The queen nodded. "They're my pride and joy…especially the roses. Those are my favorites."

Alice smiled. "Roses are my favorites…and speaking of favorites, I am _loving _the bed in our room…where did you get it?"

The queen and king laughed. "It was specially made."

Alice frowned. "Aw, crap. Oh, um…I mean, shoot. I really wanted one for my house back home."

This time, I laughed along with the king and queen. "Alice, you're so weird."

She shrugged. "I know." She looked around. "Um, pardon my asking, but when does dinner actually start?"

As she spoke, butlers and maids appeared from a doorway carrying covered silver platters. One looked at the king, and he gestured to the table, "Go ahead, James, you can set them down. We'll call for you when we're ready for the next set."

The next set? There had to be at least twenty trays or so in this set! What did they think we were all going to eat?

We heard a gasp from the doorway to the dining room and turned to see Angela and the other three girls standing there, staring in awe at the food on the table.

The queen looked around the room. "That should be all of us, right? Please, everyone, take a seat." She gestured to the table, and everyone started to sit down. Rosalie tugged on my hand.

"Bella, come sit by me."

I smiled down at her. "Okay, where?"

She pulled me down to the chairs next to her mom. "Right here," she sat down in the chair next to her mom, and I sat down in the one on the other side of Rosalie.

Dinner passed quickly. There were so many dishes to choose from, and I left the dining room stuffed. As I was entering the entry hall, I heard someone calling my name. I turned to see Rosalie running towards me.

I smiled. "What's up, Rose?"

I vaguely noticed the king and queen standing off in a corner, watching silently as Rosalie asked me a question that would change my life forever. "Bella…I know I'm only ten, and you're bigger than I am, and you probably have a billion things at home, but would you maybe stay here for a couple more weeks as my guest?"

I think my heart stopped for a moment. I looked down at this little ten year old girl, with violet eyes pleading, and I saw what could happen if I stayed here. I could stay in Ireland longer. I could go horse riding with Rosalie all the time. I could go to balls and meet other royalty and…not be in Washington. What about my father? What about Alice? And Jasper? What about Angela? She was supposed to start working at my store a few weeks after we get back from this trip. I couldn't trust Alice with my store…could I? I mean…I trust her with my life, and she is Assistant Manager, but my store is still new…I…I don't know.

I looked down at the girl again, indecision covering my face, and knelt down to her level. "Rosalie…I…" I looked at her and I saw my answer in her eyes. I smiled. "I would be _honored_ to stay as your guest." She grinned before letting out a squeal and jumping into my arms. I laughed and hugged her back. I looked up from her embrace to see the king and queen smiling at me.

I pulled away from her embrace, and smiled at her before heading up the stairs to my room. When I entered, Alice looked up from a book she was reading on the bed. "Hey, I heard squealing downstairs. What's up?"

I let out a mix between a laugh and a sigh. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

She narrowed her gaze at me. "Try me, Bella."

I quirked a brow at her, but told her, "Rosalie asked me to stay as her personal guest for a couple more weeks."

_"What?!"_ Alice wasn't sitting on the bed anymore. She had jumped off and was now standing directly in front of me. "Bella!" She looked mad for a second before she grinned a blinding smile. "Bella, that's _awesome_! I mean, I'm extremely jealous, but that's so awesome! I'd love to follow that little girl around everywhere! She's so cute!"

I smiled. "But, Alice, what am I going to do about the store? I can't just not be there for any longer! I-"

Alice shoved a hand over my mouth. "Bella, just calm down for a second, okay? I'm your Assistant Manager, right?" I nodded. "Okay, so I'll just take over for a little while. You've taught me everything I need to know, and we've gone over it a billion times. Let me take care of it. I'll get Angela settled in, and us and Jasper'll take care of the store for a while. I'll stop by your dad's place and let him know what's going on. He'll probably want to talk to you, too, so I'll let him know when he can. It's an…eight hour time difference, right?" I nodded again. "Alright, then. Bella, I want you to relax again. Fate is a weird thing, but it's loving you right now, so I want you to make the most of it, okay?"

I smiled and gave Alice a fierce hug. "I love you, Alice. You're the best."

She laughed. "I know. Come home as soon as you miss me, okay?"

Tears pooled in my eyes as I answered her. "Okay."

***~*O*~***

I couldn't sleep. Alice wasn't lying when she had said the bed was comfy, but I just couldn't fall asleep. I was still thinking about my decision to stay here…in Ireland. I turned on my side to search for my iPhone on the side table next to the bed. When I found it, I slid my finger across the screen to check the time. 2am…Irish time. Ugh.

That was when my stomach growled. I moaned. Not now! When it continued to grumble I sighed and crawled out of the bed. I didn't have to worry about waking Alice; she was the heaviest sleeper in the world. I pulled a t shirt over the cami I had worn to bed and grabbed a flashlight from my bag before stepping out into the hall.

I crept down the hallway, unsure if I would wake anyone or not. I managed to make it down the stairs without falling and stopped when I got to the entry hall. I tried to remember where the kitchen had been when I remembered; it was through the dining room. The butlers and maids had come through the connecting door when they served our dinner. I made my way towards the dining room and eased my way into the kitchen through the door, and almost had a heart attack when I closed the door: I wasn't alone in the room.

"Ah!" Someone screamed as the beam of light from my flashlight blinded them. "Would you mind putting the light down? I kinda liked being able to see!"

I put the flashlight down, facing away from the person. "Prince Edward?"

He turned to face me. "Just Edward is fine. Wait…Bella? What are you doing down here?"

I folded my arms. "I could ask you the same thing."

He pointed a finger at me, about to say something, but then thought better, "Touché….Alright, you caught me. I'm down here because I'm _starving_. Not eating since 11:30 in the morning will do that to a person. Lucky Charms?" He held up a box and a bowl. In the dim light from the flashlight, I could see the telltale photo of the Lucky the Leprechaun on the front of the box.

I laughed. "Sure."

He grabbed another bowl from one of the cupboards and a spoon from a drawer. He handed them to me and slid the box of cereal and the jug of milk across the counter to me. We ate in silence for a couple of minutes, my mind bubbling with a million questions, but he was the first one to break the silence.

"So, I heard about Rosalie's question to you…that was very kind of you."

I was thankful it was dark…because now my face was the color of a tomato. "Aw…it was nothing. She's such a sweet girl. She deserves a friend."

"Yeah…" He was quiet for a few minutes before he slammed his spoon down. "Do you know what really makes me mad?"

The abrupt sound of his spoon startled me. "Um, I-I don't know. What?"

"This trip."

"…People visiting your castle makes you mad?"

"No….no, it's more for Rosalie's sake that I don't like it. Every year we've had this trip, six girls have always won it, but I think only girls can win it anyway. Anyway, every time, Rosalie tries to get some of the girls to hang out with her, but they always ignore her, just shoving her off to the side because they're more often than not on the trip to see me…and nothing else."

I quirked a brow at him. "So…you really weren't away on important business? That was just a ruse from your mother to get Jessica and Lauren to forget about looking for you?"

He nodded. "Yeah. I didn't know that's what she was going to do until I heard her say it. I-"

Wait," I interrupted him. "You were spying on us?"

He suddenly became very interested in his cereal. I gasped. "You _were_ spying on us! I thought I had heard someone upstairs. I heard squealing."

Edward laughed. "Yeah, that was Rosalie. I had to take her to my room so that she'd be quiet. She was giggling like a maniac when Mom had told those two girls I was 'gone'." He put little air quotes around the word gone. He laughed again.

I laughed with him. "She really is a sweet girl."

He nodded. "I love her to death. I'm usually the only other person she sees during the day; it'll be nice for her to see someone else for a change."

That shocked me. "How can she go a whole day with out seeing your parents? …well, I guess that's not anything unusual. Sometimes I go two or three days without seeing _my _dad, but still…"

"It's a royalty thing. Gotta meet the Duke of this place, and the Prime Minister of so and so, and the list goes on…" He sighed. "It gets pretty annoying after a while."

I shook my head. "I can't imagine."

He smiled. "It's not all bad, though. There's a ton of balls and stuff that we get invited to. Those are fun. In fact, there's one in a couple weeks that I think Rosalie wants you to go to with her."

I smiled. "Sounds like fun. I've never been to a ball before. I've been to a prom…but I think that's pretty much as opposite of a ball as you can get." I laughed.

He looked confused. "What's a prom?"

Oh yeah. He's a prince. He's never been to a prom! I smiled. "It's…it's just a party of sorts for high school kids and there's a nice dinner and a dance, and all the girls get to wear pretty dresses and dance with guys in tuxedos…but it's so cliché that it's disgusting." I laughed. "I didn't really like my prom."

He frowned. "Well that's unfortunate."

I snorted. "Not really. You don't have to feel sorry for me."

He shrugged. "Alright then, if you insist." He gestured to my bowl. "Are you done?"

I looked down to see that it was actually empty, not noticing that I had kept eating while we had talked. I handed it to him. "Yes, thank you. It was a very nice bowl of cereal. The most exquisite I've ever had."

He chuckled and checked the time on a clock on the wall. I glanced as well, and saw that it was almost 3 in the morning. Well, time flies when you're talking to a prince.

I turned around, to find him standing right behind me. His emerald green eyes shone brightly in the dim light coming from the flashlight. He looked at me with longing in his eyes. He raised a hand to my face and cupped my cheek. The excited shivers I had felt when I first felt his presence were back in full force, and I felt a tingling shock from where he was cupping my cheek with his hand. I think I had stopped breathing a long time ago.

"Please tell me I'm not the only one who feels like this…" he murmured so quietly I almost didn't hear him. His thumb softly rubbed back and forth on my cheek.

I softly shook my head. "You're not…" I whispered. I was vaguely aware of him as he leaned closer to me. My heart sped as he inched closer and closer towards me. He was _so _close to kissing me…when my phone rang from the counter.

We both sighed, and my heart was still speeding as I maneuvered around him to pick up my phone. It was my dad. I held a finger up to Edward to tell him to wait a second, and answered the phone.

"Hello?"

"Bells!"

I smiled. "Hey, Dad…you do realize it's three in the morning, here, right?"

I could just see him frowning on the other side of the phone. "Well, it's seven at night here, and I just got off of work, and I wanted to know what time you were coming home tomorrow."

My heart sank. I loved my dad, and I had just promised a ten year old girl not that long ago that I was going to stay here for a couple more weeks. "Um…Dad? About coming home tomorrow…"

"What about it?"

I paused. I glanced over at Edward, to see him leaning against the counter, smiling at me. I smiled at him and answered my dad. "I'm not coming home tomorrow."

"Bella! What are you talking about?"

"Dad, just calm down a second, and then I'll explain, okay?"

He harrumphed, but said, "Okay."

"Basically, Dad, long story short is that the princess asked me to stay as her personal guest…just for a couple more weeks. I talked to Alice already; she's got everything taken care of. I've even got a new employee starting in a couple weeks. She's a friend we met on the trip, and she's actually the niece of the Webbers. Alice said she'd check on you every once in a while, just so I know you're doing okay, and I promise to call you all the time, okay?"

There was a long pause before he answered. He sighed. "I don't know, Bells…you staying away for longer? I'm going to miss you, baby girl."

"I know, Dad. I'm going to miss you, too. But I promise that it'll just be for a couple weeks."

He took another pause. "Alice is going to check on me?"

I laughed. "Yes, and I bet she'll make your favorite steak if you ask her really nicely."

He laughed. "Alright, Bella. I can see you're not changing your mind. You're not my little girl anymore. You can stay, but you have to promise me that you're going to call all the time…and no boys!"

I rolled my eyes. _I don't think I can keep that promise, Dad._ "Okay, Dad. I've gotta go, I'll talk to you, later. Okay?"

"Alright, Bells. Talk to you later. Bye."

"Bye." I hung up. I looked over at Edward. I smiled. "I think I'm going to go to bed, now."

He smiled and held out an arm. "May I escort you to bed, Miss Bella?"

I giggled and slung my arm through his. "Yes, you may." He led me through the dining room and into the entry hall, where I directed him to where my room was. He stopped outside my door and let go of my arm. I gestured to the door. "This is it."

He nodded, and then bowed. I stifled another laugh. "Well, I will see you tomorrow then, Miss Bella."

I curtsied. "Goodnight, Prince Edward."

He smiled. "Good night, Bella." …and then he turned around and headed into the room across the hall from mine.

No. Way. _His _was the room across from mine? Dear Lord, help me…

He opened his door and headed in. Right before he closed the door, I whispered, "Wait."

He turned to look at me, and I quickly crossed the hall and kissed his scarred cheek. "Good night, Edward." I whispered in his ear, and then crossed back over to my room and smiled at him as I closed the door.

_**Tada! So they've met, AND almost kissed. ;)**_

_**Just a note, updates on the blog for this story are going to be postponed for a while, I don't know when I'll get back to putting them up again.**_

_**Don't forget to review!**_

_**Penny**_


	5. Chapter 5

_**Hi guys! I just want to say thank you for all of the reviews I've been getting! You guys are great, and I love you! :) Now, on to Chapter 5.**_

_**Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight, never will.**_

**Bold: **Bella

_Italics: _Edward

Underline: Alice

**BPOV**

I slept soundly until Alice's alarm went off at 8:00 that morning. We silently got dressed and then headed downstairs to the dining room for breakfast. I half expected Edward to show up, but my heart sank when I saw that he wasn't there.

I silently ate breakfast with Alice, both of us knowing what was coming in about an hour.

When we got back to the room, I silently helped Alice pack her stuff. While we packed, she turned to look at me, curiosity in her eyes. "So…"

"What?"

She grinned. "What was going on at two this morning that was so important that you left?"

I froze; Alice's shirts in my hands. "You were awake?" I thought I had been super quiet even if she was a super sleeper.

She smirked. "The flashlight woke me up. I didn't say anything because I figured you would be right back…not an hour later."

I groaned. "Dang, you're good at acting asleep, then."

She laughed. "So what was it?"

"I was hungry." I went back to packing Alice's bag.

She snorted. "I don't believe you, Bella."

"Why not?! I seriously was!" She rolled her eyes at me. I glared at her. "Fine. I couldn't sleep. I had been seriously lying there for about three hours thinking about staying here while you and Ang were back in Forks. And I was thinking about my dad and how I'd need you to check on him and crap like that. So, after a while, I was ticked because I couldn't sleep, so I checked to see what time it was. It was 2 at that point. I was about to try sleeping again when my stomach growled. So, I got up and grabbed my flashlight so I could try to find my way to the kitchen for some food." I stopped there, not really wanting to tell her about my bump into the prince.

She glared at me. "You're hiding something."

I laughed. "Am not."

"Are too. I know you, Isabella Marie Swan, and you're hiding a crap-load of information. I want it now."

"Always so nosey…" I mumbled. She glared at me, but then smiled, because I smiled at her. "Alright. I got to the kitchen…only to find that I wasn't the only one in there."

She laughed. "I know where this is going."

I smiled and continued, "Um…it was Prince Edward."

"Why do you keep running into the prince?! Seriously, Bella," She laughed.

"Anyway, he offered me some cereal and we just talked for a little bit. He's been hiding from us…well, technically just Jessica and Lauren, but it's for Rosalie's sake more than his, although it is for some of his sake as well."

Alice laughed. "Ha! I knew it! I didn't really believe that he was gone on 'important business'. I mean, sure, he's a prince, but he wouldn't be gone by himself, just saying."

I nodded. "Yeah. Well, we talked about Rosalie and me staying here and how I'll get to go to a ball and-"

"Wait," she interrupted me. "You get to go to a _ball_?" I nodded. She squealed. "Bella! That's so cool! You're getting a gown, right?"

I nodded. "Yeah, I'm actually getting measured today. I talked to the queen after breakfast. She's taking Rosalie and me into Dublin to get measured and pick out fabric and stuff like that."

She squealed. "You better send me tons of pictures, Bella. I'm gonna want to see it!"

I rolled my eyes. "No, Alice, I'm not taking _any _pictures. I'm going to leave you guessing until the last possible moment. Or hmm…maybe I won't let you know at all." I faked a shocked expression, but I laughed when I saw her glaring at me. "I'm just kidding, Ali."

"You better be."

I smiled. "Would it make you feel better if I told you I'm riding to the airport with you?"

She smiled. "Really?"

I nodded. "Yup. We're riding in one of the castle's limos, because it's bigger or something, I guess. Rosalie and the queen are coming, too, because we're heading to the seamstress right after we drop you guys off."

"Good. I think I'd die if I had to go all the way to Dublin without seeing your face one last time. I already have to go a couple more weeks!"

I rolled my eyes. "What are you going to do without me, Ali?"

"Die, probably."

I laughed. "You're so weird. Come on, let's finish packing."

***~*O*~***

The ride to the airport was pretty quiet. No one besides the queen, Rosalie, Alice, and I knew that I was staying, so Lauren and Jessica had no idea and were off in one corner of the limo whispering quietly to themselves about how they never got a glimpse of Edward. Alice and I chatted quietly with Rosalie and Angela about random stuff. Alice and I told Rosalie and Angela about our life in Forks. Rosalie was intrigued by how it seemed to be always raining in Forks, and she told the queen that she wanted to go to Forks to visit us sometime. Alice, Angela, the queen, and I all laughed.

About halfway to Dublin, my phone vibrated, indicating I had a new message. I slid my finger over the screen, and saw that it was an unknown number. I didn't recognize the area code, so I figured it was just some random person with a wrong number until I saw the message.

_What, no Lucky Charms this morning?_

I laughed. **No, sorry. I kinda had a date with His Majesty My Mattress and Her Royal Highness Queen Pillow this morning. Hope that's okay with you :). **I leaned in to whisper in Rosalie's ear. "Rose, does your brother have a phone?"

She looked at me and whispered back, "yeah. Why?"

I held out my phone. "Is this his number?"

She grabbed my phone and examined the number. She smiled and handed the phone back to me. "Yeah, that's it. I see he must've texted you."

I nodded. "Yeah." My phone vibrated again, indicating a new text from Edward.

_Well I guess I'm going to have to forgive you this time, since I just got up now ;)_

I frowned. **Jerk. I got up at 8:00 for breakfast. I had to help Alice pack, too. Btw, how'd you get my number?**

"Bella, who are you texting?" Alice asked me. I took one look at her, and she suddenly knew. She gasped. "How'd he get your number?"

"That's what I just asked him!" I smiled. I think I might know…but I wanna see if I'm right." I looked over at Rosalie.

Alice laughed when she saw where I was looking. "Ah, I see."

I smiled and checked my phone. _I asked Rose to look for it. I know, I'm stooping to stalker levels, but I wanted to text you. I wanted to apologize for last night. That was a little too forward of me._

"Bella, what's he talking about?" Alice asked me. Her voice startled me, but then, I should have figured she'd be looking over my shoulder to see what Edward and I were talking about.

Figuring that saying it aloud would cause a riot from a certain corner in the limo; I sent a text to Alice. **We…kinda…sorta/almost kissed….and I kinda…sorta kissed him when he walked me to my room this morning…**

I warily glanced over at Alice as her expression went from one of expectancy to one of curiosity as she felt her phone vibrate in her pocket. Her eyes bugged as she read the text. She turned to me, blue eyes shining with excitement. "No. Way! You're kidding, right?" She turned to her phone and rapidly typed a message. My phone vibrated a few seconds later. He _kissed _you, _and _walked you to your room? _Someone's _a gentleman. I wish I could get Jasper to do that for me, but I think my dad would shoot him with his shotgun.

I laughed and shook my head at Alice. **No, I'm not kidding. And actually, **_**I **_**kissed him… on his cheek, but still a kiss…anyway, he almost kissed me, but I kissed him first. And yes, he did walk me to my room. Another surprise: his room was the one right across the hall from ours.**

I hate you, Bella. You've kept all these secrets from me, and you tell me _right before I have to leave_?! You're so mean :(

I rolled my eyes. "I'm sorry, Alice. I didn't find out it was his room until this morning, so you can't blame me for that one."

She sighed. "I guess you're right. But you _did _keep the _you-know-what_ part from me. So can I be mad at you for that?"

I laughed. "If it really means that much to you, then yes."

She squealed and hugged me. I hugged her back and noticed that everyone was looking at us with confused expressions. Alice laughed. "Inside joke, don't worry about it."

They all shrugged and went back to talking to each other. I checked my phone again to see that I had missed a text from Edward. _Bella? Are you there? …This is your number, right?_

I laughed. **Whoops, sorry. Yeah, this is my number; I was taking care of something with my friend, Alice. **

_*exhales* good I thought I had the wrong number. That would have been bad…_

**Haha good thing you didn't ;) was there another reason you texted?**

_Yes, actually. I was wondering if you would be up to touring Dublin with me after you're done with your fitting with my mom and Rosalie. Please say yes, I've already talked to my mom and she said it was fine._

I laughed. Alice looked over at me questioningly and I showed her the text. She laughed. "Oh, that's so cute. Do it."

I smiled at her and texted back. **Well, since your mom already said yes, I guess I kinda have to go… ;) Yes, I'd love to go.**

_Alright. I'll pick you up out front of the tailor at 3:00, okay?_

**Okay, see you then, Edward.**

Alice, who was peering over at our conversation, pulled back up and smiled at me. "That's so cute." She leaned in closer to whisper in my ear. "I'm so jealous I'm not staying, but you, Bella, are one lucky girl."

I smiled and hugged her, and whispered in her ear, "I'll text you everything that happens, I promise. But, you have to _promise_ not to tell _anyone_. Not even my dad. He'd have a coronary if he found out."

She pouted. "Can I tell Jas and Ang?"

Whoops. I nodded. "Yes, you can tell them, but wait to tell Ang until you're away from…" I gestured to Jessica and Lauren who were looking at us curiously. Alice got the memo and nodded eagerly.

"Okay, Bella."

***~*O*~***

"Miss you, Ali."

"I'll miss you, too, Bella. Don't forget to take tons of pictures and text me all the time."

I laughed. "I promise." I turned to Angela. She was smiling. "Ang, I hope you have tons of fun packing all your stuff in Chicago," she laughed. "Don't worry; you're going to love Forks. And, you're gonna meet Jasper, Alice's boyfriend, he's really sweet. He works at the store, too."

She smiled. "Have fun staying here, Bella. Do so much stuff you make the world sick with envy they aren't you."

I laughed and hugged her. Rosalie tugged on the hem of my shirt. "Bella? We have to go…"

I smiled at her and turned to Alice and Angela. "I have to go, guys. Make Jessica and Lauren jealous for me."

They laughed. "Oh, I think that's already taken care of," Alice murmured and we looked over to where they were standing, glaring at me. I smiled and hugged Alice and Angela one more time before climbing back into the limo with Rosalie.

As the car pulled away from the curb, I turned to face out the back window and wave at my friends on the sidewalk. The queen's voice startled me. "Now, Bella." I turned to face her.

"Yeah?"

She smiled. "You must realize that this hasn't happened before, yes?"

I smiled. "I kind of figured. This is amazing, Your Majesty. I would have never thought I'd be staying…or going on the trip in the first place for that matter. I had no idea I was going. My friend Alice signed me up."

She chuckled. "First of all, you can call me Esme. Your Majesty…" she laughed. "That's usually only for introductions only."

I nodded. "Esme… got it."

"Second…ah, who am I kidding? I'm hoping you staying here will be good for a couple things. Rosalie has really wanted a friend for her to play with."

I smiled and looked at Rosalie. "And I look forward to being your friend, Rosalie."

She smiled. "Thanks, Bella." She looked at Esme. "I like her, Mom."

Esme and I laughed. She leaned in to whisper something in her ear, and Rosalie giggled at whatever it was. Esme leaned back and looked at me. "And I'm hoping you'll be an influence on Edward."

My eyes bugged. "Me? Be an influence on the prince? Why?"

She sighed. Sadness suddenly reigned over her features. "He's been hiding too long. You've already seen that as he wasn't actually gone while you were here…he usually hides in his room, hardly ever coming out. He's just been…rejected, for lack of a better word, too many times lately because of his scars. I'm hoping that you'll be able to bring him out again. I haven't seen a real light in him for a long time."

Rosalie nodded. "That's why Edward's usually the only one I see during the day. He says I'm the only one who can make him smile."

I smiled at Rosalie. I could totally see how this little girl could make the prince smile. She was the sweetest girl I'd ever met.

The queen- erm, Esme- cleared her throat. "On a lighter subject, Bella, we're very happy to have you with us. We're going to be stopping at another store first, before we head to your fitting. You're going to need some new clothes because you're going to accompany us on a few things, so you need some nicer clothes." She smiled. "Trust me; you're going to like it."

***~*O*~***

Like was an understatement. I loved it! The store we were at was just a short walk from the tailors, and it was the cutest store I'd ever seen. It was in a small building snuck in between two cafés. Now that I had seen it, it was actually next to the small café that Alice, Angela, and I had had lunch at one day when we were staying in the hotel.

When we entered the building, I vaguely noticed that it was empty of shoppers. There were racks of any type of clothing you could think of, but it was all designer. There were dresses, skirts, shoes, jeans, blouses, and a whole section of the store was set off for jewelry. As I stared in awe of the store, a very petite girl had appeared from the back of the store.

"Ah, Your Majesty!" She smiled at Rosalie. "Princess, how are you both today?"

Esme smiled. "We're doing well, Bree."

Bree smiled. "Good, good, and what do you need today? I just got in a new shipment of ribbons for the Princess, or possibly-" she stopped because she had caught sight of me. "Oh, who is this?"

"This is Bella, Bree. She's a personal guest at the castle. She needs some new clothes, feel free to put it on my tab, dear."

Bree giggled and tugged on my hand. "Come this way, dear." As she tugged me along, I heard Rosalie ask Esme if she could go look at the ribbons, and her cheers as she said yes. I noticed Esme following me as I was dragged towards the back of the store by tiny Bree.

When I say Bree was tiny, I seriously meant it. She looked to be about 18, but she was shorter than Alice. She pulled me into the dressing room area, where three curtains covered the entrances to the dressing rooms. She pulled me up onto a stool and she pulled a tape measure out of her vest and started measuring.

Her curly dark brown hair bounced in her ponytail as she twirled around me, measuring. She mumbled things to herself, but they were so quiet I couldn't understand what she was saying. But Esme would smile at her mumblings and randomly comment on things in a different language from her chair near the mirror.

When Bree left with her measurements to find some clothing choices for me, Esme chuckled. She smiled when I looked at her with a confused expression. "She's such a sweet girl. Sorry if you didn't understand us. She has a very good hang on the English language, but she likes to speak in Irish when she can. She tried several times to put pink in your color scheme." I shuddered at the thought. Esme laughed. "That's what I figured. You looked more like a green and blue type of girl."

I smiled. "I like brown, too."

Esme nodded. "I had figured that, too."

"Um," I started. "How…how old is Bree?"

Esme chuckled. "She gets asked that question all the time. She's nineteen. Her mother used to own this store, but she passed away a few months ago from cancer."

"Aw, poor thing."

Esme nodded, but said nothing more as Bree had entered with a rather large pile of clothing. I internally cringed at the size of the pile, but it turned out that half of "trying on" the clothes was Bree holding them up to me, seeing whether she liked them up against me or not. By the time she was through the pile, half of it had been dumped. The remaining clothes and myself were shoved into the biggest dressing room and I tried all the clothes on. I went out to model them for Esme, Bree, and Rosalie, and they all liked the items.

After Esme generously paid for all the clothing and a few ribbons for Rosalie, we headed outside to head to the tailor's. The limo driver and our bodyguard for the day, Emmett, I think his name was, was leaning against the limo reading the newspaper. He looked up to see us and opened the door to let us drop off the bags.

"Bella?" Esme called as I placed the bags in the car.

"Yeah?" I turned to look at her. She smiled.

"Why don't you grab a few outfits to try after our fitting? Edward will be picking you up, and I'm sure you're going to want to wear something else." I looked down at my jeans and long sleeved shirt and nodded. "Yeah, sounds like a good idea." I grabbed a few articles of clothing, and put them in one of the bags.

As we walked to the tailor's, I bought Esme some coffee from the little café next to Bree's store and I also bought Rosalie a cup of hot chocolate. They both enjoyed their cups immensely, and Esme said she'd have to keep the place in mind. The little elderly woman behind the counter looked like she was going to explode in joy to have the queen in her little café, she was so happy.

Rosalie held my hand as we walked down the sidewalk and she told me stories of funny things that had happened in the castle. I laughed along with her as I sipped on my peppermint mocha. By the time we made it to the tailor's, I had heard so many stories about Rosalie and Edward, I felt like I knew them better than I knew my own dad.

As we entered the tailor's I noticed again that the building was empty of customers. It must be mandatory that the queen and whoever she brought with her were the only ones allowed in the building when she needed something. I wonder how early Esme needed to call ahead if she wanted to go somewhere…

I heard heels clicking, and a woman in black heels and a black pencil skirt and green blouse walked up to us. She had a pencil behind one ear and pins sticking out of her black jacket and more pins coming from her dark brown hair that was piled on the top of her head. She smiled and gestured to Esme.

"Welcome, Your Majesty. We've been expecting you."

Esme smiled. "Hello, Heidi." She gestured to me. "This is Miss Bella Swan. She is staying as a guest in the castle, and she needs a gown for the ball coming up in a couple of weeks."

Heidi eyed me curiously. "Ok. Did you have any specific colors in mind already?" She looked at Esme.

Esme studied me for a second. "Let's go with a blue…preferably darker."

Heidi nodded and led me to a room around the corner. The room was bare except for a little bench. Outside the room, there had been another stool like the one I had stood on in Bree's store, but it was circular and much larger. There had also been two chairs and a tri-fold mirror. I wasn't sure what I would be trying on, but I figured I'd have to try something on. Heidi measured me, and then left, telling me just to wait until she came back.

When she did come back, she had several large bags with her, all of them holding long, white gowns. She noticed my confused expression and laughed. "These are just modeling dresses. They're to find out what kind of style fits you best so that I can make your dress that style, and in the color you wanted, which in this case is a dark blue. I can see why the queen wants you in that color, it'd set off your beautiful, pale skin nicely." She smiled and held out the first dress.

I awkward got out of my jeans and shirt and put the dress on. Heidi helped lace up the back, and I stepped out into the little section with the chairs and mirror.

I looked at Rosalie and Esme, and Rosalie cooed, "Ooh, Bella, you look so pretty!"

I smiled and looked down. It was a pretty dress. The top was covered in sequins, and there was a silk sash that went under my chest. Underneath the sash, the dress fell down to the ground, poofing out slightly. I smiled, it was a very pretty dress, but it didn't feel right. And that's exactly what I told Heidi. She just smiled and led me back to the room, telling me that I had quite a few other choices.

The problem was, it was like that with all of the dresses I tried. They were all beautiful dresses, but none of them felt just right. I didn't know what it was. I was mad that I couldn't just be like, "ooh, this is the one!" but it just didn't come to me.

After the last dress was off, I headed out of the dressing room, slightly dejected. "I'm sorry, Heidi. It's just…none of them felt like the right dress."

She smiled and gave me a hug. "It's okay, Bella. I get quite a few women in here that are like that. Don't worry, if you find one you like at a different store, call me and I'll come and check it out, okay?"

I smiled and hugged her back, "Thank you, Heidi."

"No, problem, sweetheart."

As I pulled back from Heidi's embrace. I saw it. I think I had seen it before, but it seriously must have been the only other modeling dress in the store that I didn't try on. "Heidi?"

"Yeah?"

I pointed to the dress. "Can I try that dress on?"

She turned and saw where I was looking, and gasped. "Oh! I forgot about that dress! I can't believe I missed that one! Of course you can try it on, Bella!"

She quickly got the dress, and we headed back into the dressing room. I smiled as the fabric slipped over my skin. When the dress was laced up, I looked at myself in the small mirror in the dressing room. It was perfect. Heidi agreed.

"Bella, this dress is _gorgeous _on you, even if it is white. It's going to look even better when it's blue."

I smiled and hugged her before going out and standing on the stool, facing Esme and Rosalie. They were speechless, but in a good way. Esme's eyes were sparkling with excitement and she had a smile playing on her lips. Rosalie ran and hugged me.

"Bella, I lied. _This _dress is pretty." I laughed at Rosalie's ten year old logic and turned to the mirror.

The dress was sleeveless. Where my chest was, the fabric was covered in tiny beads. After that was a thick sash that wrapped around to the back of the dress. After the sash, the dress bunched up on the left side and flowed down to the ground. I nodded to Heidi. "This is the one."

"Well then let's get you out of it, gorgeous, so that I can make it blue!"

I headed back into the dressing room, and Heidi unlaced the back.

Heidi put the dress in a bag, and then left, taking the dress with her to her work room. I poked my head out of the dressing room and gestured to Rosalie to come in. She looked curious, but came. "What's up, Bella?"

I gestured to the bag of clothes. "I need your help. Your brother is taking me out to tour Dublin, and I don't know what I should wear…"

She smiled and dug into the bag. I smiled when I saw the outfit she picked. "I was thinking that one, too."

_**Yeah, I know, you wanna read the next chapter already. I'll probably get it up sometime within the next week or so, I promise.**_

_**Please review!**_

_**Penny**_


	6. Chapter 6

_**Hello lovelies :) Here's chapter 6, and I think you're going to like this chapter. More at the bottom.**_

_**Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight. SM does.**_

**BPOV**

I didn't have to look very far to find him. He was leaning casually against another limousine, arms folded against his chest, dressed in a button up shirt and jeans. I couldn't see his eyes; they were hiding behind a pair of aviator sunglasses, looking down at his phone in his hand.

He looked up from his phone, obviously looking for me from the way he looked around. When he caught sight of me, he grinned and walked over to me. "Well hello there, Miss Bella."

I giggled and blushed at his tone. He was teasing me like he had earlier this morning when he had walked me to my room. "Hi."

He eyed my outfit and smiled. "You look beautiful, Bella."

I blushed, "Thanks."

He smiled and lifted his hand to my face. But, before his hand touched my cheek and I could feel that tingling sensation I had felt when he had touched me last night, he sighed and dropped it, instead grasping my hand lightly. I squeezed his hand, and he held on tighter. The tingling was there; it ran up my arm, and I shivered at the feeling. I looked down to where our hands were, staring at the strange difference between my hand and his scarred left hand. I looked up and smiled at him.

"So, where are you planning on taking me, Prince Edward?"

He grinned. "You're just going to have to wait and see, but we should get going." He jerked a thumb towards the car, where I vaguely noticed Emmett switching with the other driver. I quirked a brow.

"Is Emmett coming with us?"

"Huh?" He looked around, and saw Emmett and the other driver talking by the two limos. "Oh, yeah," he turned to me and smiled. "Yes, he is. Is that okay with you?"

I nodded. "Yeah, that's fine. I was just curious." I tugged on his hand, and he smiled and led me towards the first limo where Emmett and the other driver were. They looked up when we walked over. Emmett smiled.

"Are you ready to go, Sir?"

Edward nodded. "Yes," he turned to the other driver. "Garrett, Emmett will be driving Miss Bella and me. You will be driving my mother and sister back to the castle."

Garrett nodded, "Yes, Sir." He then got out of the limo and headed over to the other one, and held the door open so that Esme and Rosalie could get inside. Rosalie waved to us before she got in, and Edward and I laughed and waved back at her.

Emmett went to open the car door so that we could get in, but Edward grabbed his hand. "I've got it, Emmett."

Emmett grinned at us, and then went to get into the driver's seat. Edward smiled and grabbed the door then gestured for me to get in. I smiled at him and climbed in.

When Edward closed the door, Emmett pulled the car away from the curb, and we headed out into the Dublin afternoon.

***~*O*~***

After a while, the car stopped outside of a rather large park. I could see grass and the vibrant reds and yellows of the trees. There were paths that went through, and I thought I saw some statues and maybe a fountain? I gasped. "Edward, where are we?"

He chuckled. "This is St. Stephen's Green, Bella."

Emmett opened the door, and Edward smiled as he tugged me out of the car with him. "Here, Sir," Emmett said as he handed Edward a large handled paper bag. There was a logo on the front, so I guessed it was probably food. It sure smelled like food. Edward grinned at me and grabbed my hand again, leading me down one of the paths. I vaguely noticed that Emmett wasn't following. I looked at Edward.

"Emmett's not following?"

Edward smiled as he looked down at me. "No, he's just going to watch from a distance. We're safe here, trust me."

I smiled at him and squeezed his hand as he led me along the paths. We wound and twisted our way through the park before we came upon a small lake that was surrounded by trees; I thought I recognized some Weeping Willows, but I wasn't sure. There were birds swimming in the lake- Edward told me they were waterfowl, and there was a beautiful shelter that was set up right against the lake. "It's beautiful," I sighed.

Edward chuckled and led me to a spot on the grass near one of the willows. He set the bag on the ground and pulled out a blanket. He spread it out on the grass, and I took off my sandals before sitting down.

Edward sat down on the blanket and started pulling other things out of the bag. It was mostly covered dishes, but there were two cups and a thermos of some sort of liquid I guessed. He grabbed a dish and turned to me. "So, I decided that you needed to experience some more Irish food. I've brought some…simple dishes. I don't think you'd like it if I brought some of the other dishes the restaurant had."

I smiled, and he opened the first container. "This is Shepherd's Pie. The main ingredients are mashed potatoes, minced lamb, and vegetables." He scooped a small piece onto a fork and handed the fork to me. I eyed him curiously before putting the food in my mouth. I didn't need to worry. It was good! I nodded and smiled at him. "This is good," I said when I had swallowed. He smiled and handed me the rest, but not before cutting off a chunk for himself.

That's how it continued for the rest of the food. There was a doughy bun that Edward said was called "blaa", which made me giggle at the name. There was also a salmon dish and in the thermos, Edward had gotten a drink called Red Lemonade…which wasn't lemonade as much as it was more soda/pop type.

When we were done eating, we cleaned up the food and the blanket, and Edward led me down towards another side of the lake, where there was a boat tied up to a small dock. I stopped when I saw where he was headed. I let out a small laugh. "Ha….uh-uh. There's no way I'm getting in the boat." I nodded for emphasis.

He chuckled. "Aw, come on, Bella."

I shook my head. "Nope."

He sighed. "Fine."

He gave a slight pout and walked away from the dock, hanging his head. I rolled my eyes and sighed. Well if he was gonna be cute about it…

I grabbed his hand and dragged him towards the dock. "Bella? What are you doing?"

I turned to look at him. He was grinning, and I couldn't help but grin back at him. "I wanna get in the boat. What does it look like I'm doing?"

He laughed and walked ahead of me, getting into the boat and held out a hand so that I could get in.

That's when things started to go wrong. I got one foot in the boat fine, but when I tried to get my other foot in, it got caught on the side of the boat, and I slipped, landing hard on my butt on the bench. Edward and I glanced at each other for a split second before we both erupted in laughter. I usually laughed when I fell, even if it did hurt.

Edward, still chuckling, untied the boat from the dock, and he rowed us out to the middle of the lake. I could say that I wasn't watching the muscles in his arms flex as he rowed, but then I'd be lying. When we had reached a good distance out in the lake, he stopped and looked at me. "Bella?"

I looked at him. "Yeah?"

"I…" He sighed. "I want to talk about last night."

I quirked a brow at him. "I thought we had already talked about that?"

He shook his head. "No, we didn't. I want to know what you think…about _this_." He gestured to the space between us.

Oh. I sighed. "I… I don't know, Edward. I mean, I haven't known you for very long, and I've talked to you for even less."

He nodded, but didn't say anything. He seemed to contemplate something before speaking. "So, we should just take it slow?"

I smiled. "I like that."

He smiled back at me. "So, let's start from the beginning. Hello, I don't think I've formally introduced myself, I'm Prince Edward. And you are?"

He held out a hand, and I shook it, smiling. "I'm Bella Swan. I'm from the United States. I live in a dreary, rainy town in Washington state called Forks."

He grinned at that. "Forks? That's an interesting name."

I laughed. "That's what your mom said when we were heading to the castle yesterday. And don't make fun of the town. I love it there."

"Okay, don't make fun of Forks…got it." He eyed me curiously. "What's your life like in Forks, Bella?"

"Forks is a very small town, so everybody knows everybody and what they're doing at what time and where. I own a bookstore with my best friend, Alice Brandon, who came on the trip with me. It opened in June of this year, so it's pretty new still. I live in a condo above my store, but I still go to my dad's house all the time. I never knew my mom; she died when I was really little."

He frowned. "I'm sorry."

I shook my head. "Don't be. I didn't have any memory of her. But my dad loved her so much. He still misses her a ton." I sighed. "I feel bad kind of leaving him at home by himself, but I think he'll be okay."

"What else is there about you, Bella?"

I quirked a brow at him. "Why do you want to know so much about me?"

He shrugged. "Curious? Seriously though, this is the first time I've had a conversation with one of the girls from the trips. Like I said, I'm usually hiding, so I never know where the girls come from."

"Oh." I guess that made sense. "Alright, so I just turned twenty-one on the 13th of this month, my favorite colors are blue, green, and brown, and I trip on any and every flat surface. Alice is one of the few people my age in Forks that I actually get along with, and I've been best friends with her since kindergarten. The rest are all boys that wanted to date me in high school and would and _still _repeatedly ask me out even though I constantly tell them no. Alice's boyfriend, Jasper, is seriously like one of the nicest guys I've ever met. He's from Texas…Houston, I think. I don't remember. I'm not very good with pets. I've never had a dog, but I once had goldfish, and after I killed the third one in a row, my dad decided that I shouldn't have pets." Edward laughed loudly. The sound made my insides flutter.

After he had calmed down, he looked around. I noticed that the sun had started to go down a bit, so it was casting a golden hue on the park. I smiled at my surroundings before looking back at Edward.

He smiled at me before saying, "we should be heading back." I nodded, and he grabbed the oars and started rowing us back to the dock. I was silent, not even looking at Edward, more just taking in the fact that I was sitting in a boat in a garden with Edward. It didn't seem real. I felt like I was dreaming and any second I was going to wake up.

When Edward rowed up to the dock and had safely tied the boat to the dock, he climbed out and held a hand out to me, grinning when I climbed out of the boat without falling. He made to let go of my hand, but I held onto it firmly. He looked confused, but I kept a stern face. "Just because we're going slow doesn't me you don't get to hold my hand."

He grinned and placed a soft kiss on my cheek and tugged on my hand, leading me back to the car. My cheek felt like it was on fire from where he kissed it. Lord help me if he ever does kiss me…

After what seemed like forever, we finally made it back to the limo. I was so confused, because the whole park looked the same, and so I just felt like I was going in a circle, but Edward had looked like he knew where he was going, and it turned out he did.

After we had gotten in the limo, and Emmett had pulled the car away from the curb, Edward wrapped an arm around me, curling me into his side. I sighed, smiling, because I'd never felt this relaxed in a long time. It was amazing how much Edward calmed me, but it scared me, because I hardly knew him! Knowing I was freaking myself out, I sighed and grabbed his hand, intertwining my fingers with his. I traced his scars softly with my other hand. Edward lifted a hand and started playing with strands of my hair as he looked out the window.

By the time we had arrived at the castle, I had pretty much memorized the scars on his hand. I gave his hand one last squeeze and gave him a smile before he got out of the car and helped me out. I smiled and kissed his cheek. "Thank you, Edward. That was nice."

He smiled, "You're welcome, Bella." He checked his watch. "Dinner's probably done by now, so I'll help you take your stuff to your room, and then you're welcome to come to the family room. We'll all be in there, and Emmett might be in there, too, if you'd like."

I smiled. "Sounds good. I'll meet you down there."

He smiled and grabbed my bag of clothes and followed me to my bedroom door and set the bag down. "See you downstairs, Bella."

I smiled. "'Kay."

He kissed my cheek and then turned to head downstairs. I smiled to myself before going into my room. My other two giant bags of clothes were sitting on my bed, and I put the clothes in my closet, along with my other clothes. I was actually very proud of my new clothes, and I knew Alice would be proud of my choices as well….well, Bree's choices, but still.

Speaking of Alice, I checked my phone for the time. Hmm…if her plane left at 9:30 this morning, and it was 6:00 pm Irish time…then her plane lands at…1 pm Seattle time? Wow, I _hated _time differences…um…so it was only…10:00 am in Seattle, I think. Shoot, her plane wouldn't land until 9:00 pm Irish time. Well, that wasn't too bad, I guess. I'd still be awake, so at least I wouldn't be texting her in the middle of the night.

Figuring she'd sleep on the planes and be awake when Jasper came to pick her up at the airport, I sent her a text. **Hey, Ali. Hope your flights were fine. I miss you a ton, girl. Text me whenever, I know you wanna know how my **_**you know what **_**went. ;)**

I sighed. I decided to change back into some other clothes, not really wanting to wear my skirt anymore, since it was still kinda wet from when I had fallen into the boat. I tried to quickly change, but I ended up tripping when I tried to get my jeans on. I fell on my floor with a loud _thump _and groaned. I think that hurt more than falling into the boat. I smiled, thinking of the memory, and how carefree Edward's laugh was. The way his eyes lit up when he laughed, and how the edges of his eyes got kind of crinkly. Something told me he hadn't laughed like that in a long time.

When I finally got into my jeans after falling on the floor, I put on a long sleeve shirt and then I decided to put on the riding boots that Rosalie gave me, since I'm sure she was going to want to go riding since it was still light out. I made my way downstairs to the family room. Everyone looked up when I walked in, and I smiled and gave a small wave. "Hello."

Rosalie ran up to me and hugged me. "Bella, I was just going to go down to the stables to brush Black Queen. Do you want to come with me?"

I contemplated, smiling at Rosalie to let her know I was teasing about thinking. I was just about to answer when Edward interrupted me. "Actually Rosie, I was thinking of going riding. How about I brush Black Queen when I get done riding?" Rosalie giggled and nodded.

He smiled and nodded at me. "Bella, would you like to join me to the stables?" The way he asked me…it was like no one else was in the room. Sure, I registered the shocked expressions of his parents and the grinning faces of Rosalie and Emmett, but nothing…no _one _mattered more than he did in this exact moment.

I blushed. "Sure."

***~*O*~***

When we got outside, I stopped on the top of the stone staircase that led down to the large circular driveway and folded my arms, giving him a stern look. "What was that about?"

He turned to look at me from the bottom of the stairs. "I…just wanted some more time with you…alone."

I giggled. "Most of the afternoon wasn't enough for you?"

He grinned. "What can I say? I'm selfish."

I shook my head. I hurried down the stairs to catch up to him and jumped up on his back. "You know, for a prince, you're really weird…" I said before kissing his neck, right behind his ear.

He chuckled. He hoisted me up a little farther on his back so that I wasn't going to fall off, and he started walking towards the stables.

He let me down at the door of the stables, and we walked hand in hand to the storage room to get blankets and stuff for the horses. Hands full of stuff; we walked to where Apollo and Artemis were chewing on oats from their buckets. Edward put his stuff down on a stool and tied Apollo up to the loop outside Artemis' stall. Unfortunately, having Edward right outside the stall was kind of distracting, so I didn't get very far on getting Artemis ready. In the end, Edward had to come and finish for me. He helped me up onto Artemis, and then he gracefully climbed onto Apollo and we set out.

If I said Edward setting Apollo up was distracting, then him _riding _Apollo was even more distracting. He looked so confident up on his horse, that there was just an aura of confidence about him.

He must have felt me staring at him, because he turned around looking at me curiously before giving me a crooked grin. "What?"

I smiled and shook my head. "Nothing."

He quirked a brow at me, but smiled and turned back towards his front. We went into the south woods for a while before he led me into a clearing that could only be described as beautiful. The clearing was completely surrounded by trees, with a few in the center of the clearing. It must have been filled with wildflowers at one time; I could see the last few plants trying to stay alive, even though it was the end of September, October beginning tomorrow. I could hear a creek bubbling somewhere, but it didn't run through the clearing.

Edward climbed down off of Apollo and walked over to me, holding out his hands so that he could help me down. Of course, he touching me meant that the tingling came back, and I basked in its few seconds of appearance. I grabbed Artemis' reins as Edward grabbed my hand. We walked to one of the trees where we tied up the horses before we sat at the base of the tree, me leaning into his chest.

He rubbed my shoulder. "What do you think, Bella?"

I looked up at him. "It's beautiful, Edward. How'd you find this?"

He thought for a second. I smiled when I saw crinkles form on his forehead. "I don't know… I've been coming here for as long as I can remember. I think I just found it one day when I was walking with my mom." He smiled. "She loves the flowers that grow here. They're some of her favorites."

I smiled. "Your family is all so nice."

He laughed. "Well, we've kind of got a good reputation for that. People say that my dad's a pretty fair ruler, and he makes wise decisions, so people trust him a lot."

"Well what about you?" I twisted myself in his arms so that I was straddling his lap, facing him. "Do you want to be king?"

Startled by my movement, it took him a second to form an answer. "Well…yeah, I want to be king. I'm just not sure if I'm ready for it, yet."

I smiled at him. "I think you'd make a great king."

He smiled at me. "Really?"

I nodded. "Really."

He gently slid me off of his lap, and he reached up to climb the tree. Kind of hurt that he had taken me off of his lap; it wasn't until I looked up that I saw he was climbing for the apples at the top of the tree. He grabbed two, and brought them down. He held one out to me. When I grabbed it, not sure if I should eat it or not, Edward laughed at my expression. "It's for the horses."

"Oh." I smiled and held the apple in my palm out to the gray horse. She peered up from the grass and sniffed the apple in my palm before opening her big lips and grabbing the apple. I giggled when she opened her mouth. It tickled.

After the horses had their snack, Edward pulled me back down to the ground, where he pulled me onto his lap. We talked for what seemed like hours about his life in the castle, and I played with the long grass, making a little woven crown that I placed on Artemis' head.

It was almost pitch dark outside when we got back to the stables. I wasn't as distracted this time getting Artemis undone, much to my dismay, but it took us longer, because we needed to brush them, and then we went and brushed Black Queen for Rosalie.

Edward and I walked hand in hand back to the castle, but didn't meet anyone as we walked through the castle. The rest of the family and Emmett weren't in the family room, so we figured they had headed to their rooms for the rest of the night.

Edward led me up the stairs, and he stopped outside the doors to our rooms. I turned to open my door, and then turned around to say good night to Edward, but it got stuck in my throat. Edward was looking at me with such a longing in his eyes. All I could do was stare at him, gazing into his deep, emerald eyes.

He brought a hand up to my cheek. "Bella?" He whispered ever so softly. "Can I kiss you now?"

Almost positive that I wouldn't be able to speak even if I tried, I nodded, still staring at him. He sighed softly, leaning in closer…and closer.

I sighed and closed my eyes, just before his lips pressed softly against mine. I kissed him back, pressing just as softly as he was, but after a second, he added more pressure, and soon we were gasping for breath as we kissed in the hallway. He pulled away for a second, looking at me with eyes that seemed to shine even brighter in the dimly lit hallway. He pressed his lips against mine once…twice…three times more before opening my door wider. He smiled and kissed my temple before whispering "good night, Bella," in my ear and turning to go into his room.

I turned to my room, and made sure the door was closed before I sighed loudly, smiling as I slid down the door to the floor. This had to be, by far, the best day ever.

_**So? What did you think? Like it? Hate it? **_

_**Leave me a message! I wanna know what you think!**_

_**Penny**_


	7. Chapter 7

_**Hello, lovelies! :) I hope you have had/ are having a wonderful Christmas! And I have a special present for you! A new chapter! Lol, so I'll let you get to it!**_

_**Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight. SM does.**_

**BPOV**

Days passed, and I breezed through them in kind of a haze. Edward was growing ever sweet on me, much to the excitement of his mother. Edward had taken me on another tour of the castle, but this one was much more thorough…and intimate as it seemed that every few feet, he would push me up against a wall, and we'd make out like we were fifteen.

However, Edward had missed one room. I knew he knew it was there, but when I asked him what that room was, he just said it was nothing and walked down the hallway towards the library. I was very intrigued, but I followed him. I'd have to check the room out later.

I followed Edward to some things that he did around the castle. There were meetings with his father, which were quite boring. I sat in on one with Esme once, and I think I caught myself almost falling asleep twice. There was also fencing with Emmett, which was very entertaining to watch. Edward was very good, but I more enjoyed it because I got to watch him, period.

When I wasn't spending time with Edward, I was usually with Rosalie. I tagged along with her to a little tea party with some other high- class ten year olds. That was the most interesting tea party I had ever been to. They were all such sweet girls, and very polite. I don't think even my tea with my teddy bears when I was five could compare.

Besides tea parties with Rosalie, I tagged along with Esme to some small parties with Duchesses and Baronesses of other places. They were all very sweet women. They greeted Esme with open arms, and were even kind enough to include me in their conversations, if I knew what they were talking about.

However, some of the Duchesses and Baronesses had daughters that were my age. They weren't so nice. They didn't acknowledge me at all. Of course, I didn't really want to talk to some hoity toity girls that were more obsessed with their appearance and gossiping than they were with other things. I think some of the girls must have been "in a relationship" with Edward at one point because when we were leaving, Esme had to hold me back from charging a girl that had the nerve to bash Edward right in front of our faces, but I could tell Esme was holding back a growl herself.

That left a mark on me. "Ugh," I fumed once we had gotten into the limo and were heading back to the castle. "That one girl made me so mad!"

Esme sighed before answering. "I'm sorry, Bella. I kind of figured that she'd be there. Most of those girls are her friends, but her mother is such a nice lady. Her mom is Duchess Denali."

I gasped. "Really? But she's such a nice lady…" I sighed. "Wait, what's her daughter's name? The blonde girl with the blue eyes is her…right? The one I wanted to hit?"

Esme nodded. "The daughter's name is Tanya. She's Edward's ex-fiancée." She sighed. Her expression turned hard. "She broke it off with him rather rudely…right after he had returned from the hospital after his accident."

I gasped. _Poor Edward, _I thought. I quirked a brow at Esme. "And you wouldn't let me hit her?"

Esme laughed. "I would have liked you to, but I wouldn't embarrass Carmen like that or Eleazar for that matter. He's such a good friend of Carlisle's."

I nodded. "Alright, I can respect that. She is a really nice person…it's just her daughter that I don't like…" I mumbled as Esme laughed.

I was still kind of put out when we got back to the castle. After Garrett helped me out of the car, I made my way into the castle, hurrying to my room so that I could get out of the heels that were killing my ankles.

When I had changed into a pair of jeans and a sweater, I hurried out of my room and ran right into Edward. He steadied me, chuckling, and pulled my chin up so that I was looking at him. "Hi," he said. "How was the luncheon?"

I frowned at the memory. "Fine."

He chuckled. "It didn't sound like it was 'fine'. What happened?"

I looked down at my socked feet. "Um…"

He pulled my chin up again. "Bella? You can tell me…"

I sighed. "I…kinda ran into your ex…Tanya? Yeah, she totally bashed you, right in front of Esme and me, and I kinda almost punched her."

His expression, which was hard when I mentioned Tanya, turned to one of amusement. "Let me guess, Mom wouldn't let you?"

I nodded. "But, it's fine. I totally understand her reasoning. Her mom is such a nice lady."

Edward nodded. "Yes, she is." He kissed my forehead. "I'm sorry you had to deal with her."

I shrugged. "Yeah, me too."

***~*O*~***

It was a cold, rainy day at the end of October. I couldn't believe that I'd already been here for a month. The days had just seemed to fly by. I hadn't really set a date for returning home yet, because every time I thought about going home, my heart started pulling strings towards a certain bronze headed, green eyed prince. I knew I was going to miss him whenever I decided to go home, but I just didn't want to leave him here.

I was curled up in a large chair next to the fireplace in the library. I spent quite a lot of time in here, even more now since I wasn't following Rosalie around. She, Carlisle, and Esme had all gone to some event of Rosalie's, and apparently only the parents were allowed. Edward was somewhere with Emmett, I think Emmett was teaching Edward how to box or something like that. Anyway, I had decided that I'd rather read, so I decided to stake my claim in the largest chair near the roaring fire, which Charlotte had so graciously made for me.

Charlotte was the cutest girl in the world. She was a maid in the castle, and she had told me that she was my personal maid while I was here. I only knew that because I woke one day a couple weeks ago, to find her standing at the foot of my bed, staring at me. I screamed, because I was a _little _freaked out to find her staring at me…and in my room in the first place, but I didn't need to worry. She was super kind, and would do anything for me. Not that I made her do much stuff in the first place, but she _was_ extremely good at braiding my hair.

After a while, my book wasn't keeping my attention. So, I put my bookmark in it, and closed it, promising I'd come back later. I went out in the hallway and decided where I should go when I remembered- Edward's mystery room. I wanted to check it out.

I felt kind of bad sneaking behind his back, but he was keeping this room from me, and I wanted to know what was in there. After I made sure no one was around, I crept my way towards the curious door at the end of the hallway.

I passed a window, and sighed when I saw it was still raining. The rain reminded me of home too much, and soon I was thinking of Alice and Dad. I sighed and passed the window, and got to the door. I opened it silently, and walked in, but closed the door before turning to face the pitch black room. Okay, first thing: find the light switch. My hand felt along the wall, and I grinned when I found it.

My grin turned into a pure shocked expression when I turned on the light. I think my jaw was on the floor. He was hiding _this _from me? And why didn't he tell me he played?

The room, which was painted a warm golden color, had one thing that caught my eye. Up on a large platform, was a sleek, black grand piano. Sheet music was discarded all over the floor and the platform, and I saw some more sticking out of the compartment underneath the bench seat top. There was a deep brown bookcase in a corner, and a couch and a couple comfortable looking chairs in another corner near a large, empty fireplace. There was a desk with a mountain of staff paper on it, and the desk faced a wall that was completely window. There was a chaise that was closer to the piano than the rest of the furniture…I wondered why…

I walked closer to the piano, and noticed what was on the sheet music. I mean, yeah, there was music on the paper, but what caught my attention was that it was penciled in…and there were eraser marks all over the place. He composed? That was actually kind of neat.

As I actually got up onto the platform, I noticed the music that was currently on the piano. It was a composition of his…but it was unfinished. However, my eyes flickered to the first page, and caught something- my name. I looked closer and saw "Bella's Lullaby" written at the top of the page. He was writing a song…for me?

As I moved to grab the music, I knocked over a cup. Freaking out, because I thought there had been something in it, or had broken it, I turned to look where it had fallen, when I realized that it hadn't broken. I found it under the piano bench. It was a plastic cup. I could see remnants of some sort of liquid in the cup, but I put it back on the piano. Thoughts raced around in my head why there would be a _plastic_ cup in here, and why there would be remnant of liquid in it, but then I froze…because that was when I turned around to leave.

A very furious looking Edward was standing in the doorway- funny how I didn't even hear the door open- just blatantly glaring at me. I cringed under his glare, but recomposed myself. I gestured to the room. "_This _is what you were hiding from me?"

He said only three words. "Get out, Bella."

I was confused. "What?"

"I said, get out, Bella."

"Edward? What's wro-"

"I said get _out, Bella_!" He walked towards me, but terrified of his glare, I streaked passed him and out the door, slamming it behind me. Tears started pouring down my face. I'd never seen him that mad, ever.

For lack of better words, I was terrified of him right now. I ran to my room and grabbed my shoes and a jacket before running out the front door. I didn't know where I was going, but I wasn't staying in the castle with Edward that mad at me. I ran past the stables, not having the patience to get a horse ready, and into the woods. I didn't care where I was, I just… wanted to be away.

***~*O*~***

**EPOV**

Crap. I had screwed up royally. I had been immediately curious when I saw the light shining underneath the door, but I somehow knew it was Bella. But, that made my anger flare, and I blew up at her…big time.

I saw the tears pool in her eyes as she ran out, and I almost ran after her, but I knew she wasn't going to want to see me. So, I growled at myself, furious that I had chased Bella off, and sat down on the floor of that room for what seemed like hours.

When I finally got up, I walked out of the room, almost walking straight into a frantic- looking Emmett. "Emmett?" I started. "What's wrong?"

"It's Bella…she ran off into the north woods."

***~*O*~***

**BPOV**

I don't know how long or how far I ran, but started to realize that these woods didn't look like the woods I had been in with Rosalie or Edward. It somehow looked harsher…and more dangerous.

I slowed down, and started to gain a bearing of my surroundings. Yes, I had definitely never been in this part of the forest before. I sighed, and sat down on a fallen log. It was wet, but everything was wet…it was still raining. I tried to wipe away the trail the tears had made on my face, but I could still feel it after a while.

I got up, deciding that I should probably start trying to head back home, when I heard a growl behind me. I turned around, scared beyond belief, and came face to face with a wolf. Okay, so I was going to die in these woods. I wasn't going to be able to fight it off, and I couldn't think of anything I had ever learned about if you came across a wild animal that looked like it was going to eat you for dinner. So, I did the only thing I could think of. I stood, frozen in fear as the wolf stared me down. I could see the dim light reflecting off of more wolf eyes that were hiding behind trees, but I was still staring at the one in front of me. The wolf crouched, ready to pounce and I put my hands up to cover myself.

I saw the wolf spring from between my arms, but I also heard a rather loud neigh….I didn't know that the woods had wild horses….wait. I knew that neigh. How many times had I heard it over the last month? I put my arms down to see Edward standing in front of me, Apollo off to the side, rearing up at the wolf. The wolf was lying down on its side, whimpering. Apollo must have knocked it off to the side.

However, seeing that the wolf was down, the others crept out from their hiding spots behind the trees. There were seven wolves in all. I didn't know how we were getting out of this one. The one wolf that was lying on the ground got up, and started growling at Edward. The other six followed. Edward cringed as one snapped at him. I was holding onto Edward's shoulders, trying to hide myself.

I heard Edward whisper to me. "Bella? It's okay. Just go over by Apollo when I say so, okay?"

I whimpered and whispered, "Okay."

The main wolf took one more step towards Edward, and he yelled, "Bella, now!"

I streaked for Apollo, and I saw a wolf leap at Edward. When I was behind the whinnying horse, I cringed as I saw Edward fight with them. They were surrounding him, jumping on him and scratching at him.

Apollo seemed to know what was going on, and ran over to Edward, and started kicking the wolves. In the down pouring rain, I cried as I watched horse and man fight a pack of wolves. Apollo nailed the first wolf perfectly on the side, and it whimpered as it hit the ground. The other wolves seemed to notice as the wolf got up and ran away, deeper into the woods. The other wolves followed suit, and soon it was just me, Edward, and Apollo in the small clearing of trees.

Edward turned to me, chest heaving and blood on his face, and collapsed to the ground. I screamed and ran to Edward. Tears pouring down my face, I managed to turn him over. "Edward?" I cried. "Edward, come on, wake up, baby. Please." I wiped uselessly at the blood on his face, trying to clear it, but it kept coming, creating small pools on his cheek.

I shook him, but seeing as it was no use, I looked around trying to figure out how I was going to get him back to the castle. I saw Apollo standing close by, and I called to him, and he registered my voice and walked over.

Apollo, smart horse that he was, seemed to realize what I needed and knelt so that he was lying on the ground like a dog might. Realizing that he wanted me to place Edward on his back, I managed to lift him up just enough to get him on. Once Edward was on, Apollo stood up, and I grabbed his reins and walked him back towards the castle, tears pouring down my face as the rain continued to pour down.

We finally made it to the stables, and I slid Edward off of Apollo, and somehow managed to get him onto a pile of blankets in a corner. I put Apollo in his stall and tied him up before running back to Edward. He was still out, and blood was still pooling on his cheeks. Tears still pouring down my face, I checked my pockets for my phone when I realized that it was still up on the top of the side table in my room.

I frantically searched Edward's drenched pockets, and found his phone in his front right jean pocket. I scrolled through the numbers quickly until I found the one I was looking for. He picked up on the first ring.

"Sir? Is everything okay? Where's Bella?"

I choked. "Emmett…"

"_Bella_? Where's Edward? Where are _you_? What happened?"

I tried to get the words out through my sobs. "It's Edward. He's…hurt. He tried to fight off some wolves, but I think he got hit a couple times…he collapsed, and I can't get him to wake up."

"Alright, Bella. Where are you?"

"In the stables, near the back."

"Alright, I'll be there in a second. Stay calm, Bella."

I cried. "Okay."

***~*O*~***

Soon, a drenched and worried looking Emmett arrived in the back of the stables. He saw me, and quickly jogged over. I got up from where I was sitting in the blankets by Edward, and gestured to Edward. "What should we do, Emmett?"

He sighed. "I think it's probably best that we take him back up to the castle. I really don't want to freak the queen out. I don't think the poor woman could take it again."

I nodded, suddenly remembering. I couldn't imagine how worried Esme must have been when Edward had gotten attacked by the bear.

Emmett picked up Edward gently, and we walked back up the hill to the castle. James and Charlotte held the doors open for us and we made our way up to Edward's room. When I opened the door for Emmett, it struck me that I had also never been in Edward's room. There was a large bed against one wall, a desk in a corner, and a large armchair in another corner. There were two doors, one for a closet and the other for a bathroom I guessed. There was a fireplace right across from his bed, and I could see a box for wood just off to the side.

I pulled back the covers on his bed, and Emmett laid Edward down. He stood back up and looked at Edward lying on the bed in his blood- stained shirt. He sighed. "We should probably take the shirt off." I nodded.

I turned to leave then, walking out into the hall, and ran straight into Charlotte. I smiled. "Charlotte! I was just looking for you!"

She smiled. "What can I do for you, Miss Bella?"

Would you be so kind as to run and get me a bowl of warm water and a rag? And could you also please start a fire in Prince Edward's room?"

She nodded and smiled. "Right away, miss."

"Thank you, Charlotte."

I turned and headed back into Edward's room. Emmett was sitting in the armchair, just staring at Edward, who was now shirtless. I could see the deep scars that ran down the left side of his body. Somehow he looked even more vulnerable than what he did when he was awake. Emmett shook his head. "I'm a terrible bodyguard."

I gasped. "Emmett! Don't say that!" I placed my hands on his monstrous shoulders. "You're a wonderful bodyguard. Don't blame yourself for Edward getting hurt. It's my fault I ran off in the first place."

He shook his head. "Don't blame yourself, either, Bella."

I snorted. "Then who am I supposed to blame? I can't not blame myself, Emmett. It _is_ my fault."

He nodded, but he still looked upset. I sighed. "Emmett?" He turned to look at me. "Would Esme and Carlisle be mad if I told them that I told you to take the rest of the day off?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. I don't take too many personal days. I've never had a reason to." He sighed. "But, they should be okay with it. You two are the only ones here," he gestured to Edward and me, "and if you _do _need me, just give me a call. I'm just on the other side of the castle."

I smiled. "Alright, Emmett. It's okay, seriously. I'll take care of him."

He got up from the chair and made for the door. He nearly bumped into Charlotte on the other side of the door, but he grinned at me before letting her in and closing the door. Charlotte held up the bowl of steaming water. "Here you go, Miss." I got up from the chair and took the bowl from Charlotte. I set it on the small side table next to Edward's bed.

"Thank you, Charlotte. Are you getting the fire set up?"

She nodded. "Yes, Miss Bella."

I smiled. "Thank you, Charlotte."

She smiled, and turned to the fireplace, and I turned to the bowl, grabbing the cloth in the bowl, and gently wringing it out so that the rag still had some water in it. I crawled up onto the bed, and knelt by Edward's side. I started with the dried blood that trailed down his chest. Goose bumps erupted on his arms when I put the cloth on his chest. The blood came off easily, and there were no new scratches on his chest that I could see.

Of course, I was ogling him as well. He was well built, that was for sure. And yet, I couldn't take my eyes off of the scars. They criss-crossed their way down the left side of his chest before disappearing down his leg.

When I got his chest cleaned up, I rinsed the rag clean and started on his face. The blood had dried in caked puddles on his right cheek, and when I got it cleared, there were two scratches making their way down his cheek. Somehow, I knew those weren't his only ones. But since he was out, I couldn't roll him over. So, I just put the rag down and laid on my side on his bed, stroking his hair and speaking softly to him.

He stirred after a few minutes, and his green eyes opened, searching. He smiled when he saw me. "Bella."

Tears started falling from my eyes. "Edward!" I cried as I threw myself onto him. He was startled for a second before he hugged me, rubbing a hand on my back. "Oh, Edward, I'm so sorry," I sobbed into his shoulder. "I'm such an idiot, I shouldn't have run away. You scared me so bad…"

Still rubbing my back, he sat us up before pulling back to look at me. "I'm sorry for scaring you, Bella. I shouldn't have yelled at you like that. I wasn't really thinking when I saw you in the room..." He shook his head. "I'm so sorry."

I crushed my lips to his hard for a second before pulling back. "I'm just glad you're okay. You don't know how worried I was when you collapsed. Apollo was calmer than I was." I laughed. "He carried you all the way back to the stables. I had to call Emmett after that."

Emmett's named seemed to trigger something in Edward's mind. "Where is Emmett anyway?"

"He was beating himself up about how he was such a terrible bodyguard- how he was never there when you…um, got y'know, injured. But, I got him to relax a little, and I told him to take the rest of the day off. He's just on the other side of the castle."

Edward nodded, and then he got up off of the bed, and stretched. I gasped. His back was to me, and there was dried blood _everywhere_. I could see three deep scratches on his right shoulder blade. Edward turned to look at me. "What?"

I shook my head, trying to stop the tears from falling. I grabbed the rag. "Come here," I whispered. He walked over to my side of his bed, and sat down next to me. I crawled behind him and started cleaning his shoulder. He tensed when I put the cloth on his shoulder. "Are you okay, Edward?"

"It just stings, that's all. Nothing big."

I continued cleaning his shoulder. When I was done, I put the rag down. I started tracing the three new scars. Edward turned his head to look at me. "They're so red…" I mumbled as I continued to trace them. Edward cupped a hand on my cheek, forcing me to look at him. His green eyes were shining softly in the glowing light from the fire. He brought his other hand to my face, and started tracing something on my right cheek.

"You're scarred, too…" Edward whispered. I brought my hand up to where he was tracing the line on my cheek. Funny, I hadn't felt anything at all. The fear of Edward had taken any thought of me away. He turned and grabbed the rag and softly washed away traces of blood on my face. When he was done, he leaned in and kissed my scar. I turned my head slightly to the right, and my lips met his.

We kissed softly for a minute before Edward pulled back. He kissed my scar once more before crawling back to where he was lying down before. "Come here," he said to me, holding his arms open. I curled myself into his side, and I slept there next to him happily, falling asleep almost instantly.

_**Hope you guys had a good holiday!**_

_**Please don't forget to review!**_

_**Penny**_


	8. Chapter 8

_**Hello, lovelies! I'm sorry that I've been ignoring you. I swear, it wasn't on purpose! I'll let you get to reading now (:**_

_**Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight, never will.**_

**BPOV**

The days following the accident in the forest went by rather slowly. I had gotten a rather bad cold, so I was cooped up in my room for two days. The fireplace was stocked well the entire time, thanks to a cheerful Charlotte. Edward, too, had a cold, but he was forbidden from being in the same room as me, so we would text each other from our beds. When I wasn't texting Edward or sleeping, I kept myself occupied with a collection of Jane Austen books. It was one large book, with seven novels in it, and I had finished the entire thing by the time I recovered from my cold.

Esme was constantly running between Edward's room and mine, checking in and making sure we were fed and what not. Emmett had told me that when she, Carlisle, and Rosalie had gotten home, Emmett told her what happened, and she immediately ran up to Edward's room, where he and I were still sleeping. Thankfully, Emmett was able to console Esme enough to get her away from the room. After she had calmed down, she came back and cleaned us up some more, with help from Rosalie.

When I had woken, I was in my room, thanks to Emmett, and Rosalie was sitting in one of the chairs, holding a tray with a bowl of soup and a glass of water. These people were so nice to me, I really didn't deserve it.

When I was finally allowed to go see Edward, I nearly sprinted the four feet across the hall in my sweatpants and sweatshirt to see him. He was awake, and he grinned at me when I ran into the room. I leapt onto the bed and started peppering his face with kisses. We reclined on his bed all day, watching movies on his laptop.

Edward needed to stay in his room for two extra days- Esme wanted to be sure he hadn't caught something worse, just because he collapsed. So, the next day, Rosalie and I went horseback riding, but this time, we headed towards the front of the castle, and down a dirt road that took us to a little creek, where we let the horses drink before riding back. I could see another building off in the distance when we stopped on top of a hill. Rosalie told me that it was the manor of Duke and Duchess Denali. I frowned. I didn't realize that they lived so close to the Cullens…

The view was beautiful from the top of the hill, though. I could see the creek winding its way through the castle grounds, along with the dirt road we were traveling on that took us back to the castle as well. The castle itself loomed in the distance; I could see the gray shape reaching out above the trees.

When we got back to the castle, Esme was waiting for us in the entry hall. She smiled. "There you two are. Dinner's almost ready, and we're having guests, so wear something nice." Rosalie and I looked at each other with questioning looks, but we shrugged and headed upstairs to change. I changed into a dark green dress that stopped right above my knees and I dug around in my closet for a pair of heels. When I had finished getting dressed, I quickly had Charlotte put my hair up halfway and clip a small flower in the hair band. I applied a little bit of makeup, and I met Rosalie in the hall as she was coming out of Edward's room. I smiled. "Hey, Rose. Are you ready?" I held out an arm to her.

She nodded and hooked her arm with mine. "Yup, let's go."

I almost walked right back out of the dining hall when I saw who we were having dinner with. Tanya- I think that was her name, the girl I wanted to punch- turned to look at us as we walked in. I could see her parents on the far end of the table, talking to Esme and Carlisle.

Esme took a wary glance at Tanya before looking at Rosalie and me. She smiled and walked towards us. "Ah, there you two are." She reached us then, and she placed a hand on my shoulder and looked at the Duke and Duchess. "Carmen, you've met Miss Swan, and of course you know my daughter."

The Duchess nodded, her amber eyes shining. "Hello, there, Miss Swan. It's so nice to see you again."

I smiled. "Thank you, it's nice to see you again, as well."

Esme turned to the Duke. "Eleazar, this is Miss Isabella Swan, she's been staying here in the castle as a guest of ours."

The Duke smiled warmly at me, but said nothing.

We sat down to eat, and I ended up between Esme and the Duke. Carlisle was at the head of the table as usual, and Rosalie was sitting across from Esme, the Duchess on her left. Tanya was on the other side of the Duchess, and she glared at me all through the dinner.

About halfway through, I was startled to hear the Duke acknowledge me. "So how are you enjoying Ireland, Miss Swan?"

I dropped my fork loudly onto my plate, causing everyone to look at me. I blushed. "Sorry," I mumbled. "Accident." I turned to the Duke. "I'm sorry about that, you just startled me."

The Duke chuckled. "I see."

I smiled. "Ireland is great." I felt my heart swell as I said the words, knowing what I was saying was true. "I've really been enjoying myself."

"Where are you from originally?"

"I'm from a small town in Washington State. I own a bookstore."

"A bookstore? Really?"

I smiled. "Yeah, it's pretty new. It opened at the end of June."

"Did you go to college?"

I nodded. "I did. I graduated as an English major from Dartmouth in May."

"Excellent, excellent. Do you have any family back in Washington?"

"Yeah, my father…just my father. My mom died when I was really little."

"I'm sorry to hear that… you must miss your father a lot."

I nodded. "I do…"

That was when Tanya spoke. "So… are you leaving soon?"

The whole table got quiet. The Duchess gasped. "Tanya!"

I blushed, suddenly becoming much occupied with the remaining scraps of my food. "Um, I'm not sure yet." I said, still looking at my food. "I'm staying for a while, yet, as far as I know." I glanced up through my hair that was falling in my face to see Tanya still looking at me. She gave a little huff, but turned back to her food. I relaxed physically, and silently finished the rest of my food.

***~*O*~***

After dinner, we relaxed in the family room, most of us doing our own separate things. Esme and the Duchess were conversing quietly on one of the couches, and Carlisle and the Duke had gone off to Carlisle's study on the other side of the castle. I was on the floor with Rosalie, playing a game of chess…of all things, but I kept glancing at Tanya, who was standing by herself in a corner, looking out a window.

After a few minutes, I noticed Tanya wasn't by the window anymore. I turned back to the game, and freaked out when I heard Tanya's voice behind me. "Miss Swan?" She startled me so bad, that I knocked my king over, and Rosalie laughed.

"Yes! I win! I beat you, Bella!" Rosalie giggled.

I smiled at her, and turned around to look at Tanya. "Yes?"

Her expression was unreadable. "I was wondering if I could speak to you…privately." We seemed to both glance at the Duchess, Esme, and Rosalie, but I quickly got up and followed Tanya out of the room. I didn't know why I was following her, but now I was getting a bad feeling about this.

I followed her out to the entry hall, where she turned around to glare at me. I quirked a brow. "I'm sorry…Is- Is there something wrong?"

She shifted her weight so she was leaning more on her right foot and crossed her arms over her chest. "So…you're an American?"

I was confused. "Um, yeah. Last time I checked…Esme said that when we went to the luncheon a couple weeks ago…"

She examined her nails. "Really?" She looks up at me, a smirk on her face. "Funny, I didn't see you there….oh wait." She barks a laugh. "I remember now, you tried to slap me when you were leaving. Funny, I almost didn't recognize you with that _thing _on your face."

My hand automatically went to where my scar ran down my right cheek. I glared at her. "It's a scar…."

She rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Look…" She took one step closer to me. "I just wanna know why you're _still _here."

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me. I know you're one of the girls from the trip last month, so why are you still here?"

I just stood there staring at her with my mouth wide open, trying to form an answer. "I…I was asked by Rosalie to…" I shook my head. "Why?"

She shook her head, "No reason. I'm just trying to figure out why Esme thinks a _charity case _is going to help her get a girlfriend for her pathetic son."

_"What?" _ _Charity case_?! What… My mind was racing at a million thoughts per hour. I was just staring at Tanya like an idiot. "I… I am _not _a charity case. And Edward is _not _pathetic!" How dare she say something like that?!

"That's funny, because the way I see it, you are. Why else would you still be here if Esme didn't feel sorry that Edward can't get a girl?"

"He can too get a girl! He's been going out with me for the last month! Why are you being so rude to him anyway?"

She stepped closer to me. "I'm the ex-fiancée, that's why. And I'm telling you, you're going to find out soon that he's not at all like he seems. He's pathetic, and he's going to drop you before you get too far. Look at all the other girls he's been with…he broke up with all of them. So, do your little pathetic charity case self a favor- get out before it's too late."

I just stared at her, tears now running down my face. I wiped my tears and glared at her. "You listen to me. Edward is one of the sweetest men I have ever known in my entire life. He broke up with you because you're selfish and extremely shallow. I'd want to dump someone, too, if they didn't want me because of what I _look _like." I folded my hands and looked at her.

"I'm shallow? _I'm _shallow?!" she screeched at me.

"You heard me."

She stepped closer to me, her ice blue eyes frozen in a glare. "You listen to me, Swan. That boy is going to dump you like a bag of logs soon enough. I was nothing but nice to that boy the entire time we were going out and I-"

"Oh save your crap for someone that's gonna believe it, Tanya."

I turned to see Edward standing at the top of the stairway, shirtless, glaring at Tanya.

"Edward!" Tanya gasped. "I…I-"

"I don't want to hear it, Tanya. I think it would be best if you would leave, now."

Eyes practically bugging out of her head, Tanya gaped at Edward before turning and glaring at me, stomping into the back room to get her coat and then walking out the front door, not saying a word.

As soon as the door slammed, I turned to look at Edward. His expression, once hard, softened as he looked at me, and he held his arms out to me. I nearly flew up the stairs into his arms. He'd been curled up in his bed, so his body radiated warmth and he pressed his hot cheek onto the top of my head before kissing it.

"How are you?" he murmured.

"Irritated." I grumbled.

He chuckled and then tugged on my hand, leading me to our rooms. We stopped outside my door, and he pulled me into an embrace, kissing my forehead. "I'm sorry about her," he mumbled.

"It's okay," I whispered, kissing his chest. "I knew she was trying to get to me, I just didn't think I'd get so frustrated."

He chuckled lightly before leaning my face upwards so that he could kiss it. When he pulled back, he whispered to me, "I gotta let you go, otherwise Mom's going to get mad at me. I just don't want to let you go, because that means I don't see you until tomorrow night."

"Tomorrow night?"

He smiled. "Tomorrow's the ball, and I'm not allowed to see you until we head to the ball tomorrow. Mom's orders." He frowned. "I don't like it."

"Oh," I smiled and kissed his lips, which were turned down in a pout. "I can't wait."

He grinned and leant down to kiss me once more before turning to go to his room. He turned when he opened the door. "Good night, Bella."

I blew him a kiss and went into my room where I fell asleep almost instantly.

***~*O*~***

It was raining as Esme, Rosalie, and I headed to Heidi's store the next morning. It was rather cool outside, and I was diligently holding onto my travel mug of coffee. Both Rosalie and I were snacking on banana nut muffins from the kitchen and I was quietly texting Edward from my corner of the limo. He was laughing at me because I had left at 8 this morning to start getting ready for the ball, while I was frustrated with him because he and Carlisle weren't getting ready until 4… and the ball started at 6.

The ride to Dublin seemed to take only a couple minutes. It seemed that one moment, I was leaving the castle and the next, I was being ushered out of the limo by Emmett, who had graciously offered to be our chauffer for the day.

As I headed into the store, I noticed that it was empty of customers once again, but I could hear laughter coming from the back of the store. "Hello?" I called out.

"Bella!" Heidi called out as she came walking to the front of the store. She gave me a friendly hug. "How are you, darling?"

I smiled as she released me from her hug. "I'm doing great, Heidi. I can't wait to see the dress!"

"Well let's waste no time then, hun! Right this way!" She ushered me to the back of the store and into a dressing room, where a familiar body was sitting in one of the chairs, her bright blue eyes, shining as I walked into the room. I gasped.

"Alice!" I cried, and I ran to embrace her. She smiled and hugged me before pulling back. "What are you doing here?" I asked.

She laughed. "Oh, I can't tell you that. I'm not allowed to."

I frowned. "And why not?"

Alice just mimed zipping her mouth shut. I just glared at her and she laughed. "Oh come on, Bella! I was talking to Heidi before, and I cannot wait for you to see the dress! It's amazing!"

I rolled my eyes and started taking my clothes off so that I could try the dress on. I mentally reminded myself that I was here so early only so that if the dress needed alterations, Heidi could take care of them right away before the ball tonight. I stood on the platform and closed my eyes. I could feel the slip of fabric over my body as Alice and Heidi got me in the dress.

"Bella, you can open your eyes now." I heard Alice say. I opened them, and I gasped when I saw my reflection in the mirror. The dress, now a beautiful navy blue, hung perfectly to my body- just like it did the first time I tried it on. As I stepped out into the fitting area, Esme, Rosalie, and all the attendants "ooh"ed and "ah"ed as I twirled around for them. Esme walked up and started moving my dress this way and that, looking for problems. After a few minutes, she turned to Heidi and smiled, "It's perfect. Thank you, Heidi."

I nodded in agreement and turned to Heidi, smiling. "Yeah, thank you so much, Heidi. It's a wonderful dress."

She hugged me tightly. "Anytime, sweetheart. You have a good time tonight, okay?"

I smiled. "Okay, I think I can do that." I felt Alice tugging on my hand. "Okay, I better get going, see you later, Heidi!"

I could hear chuckling from everyone as Alice led me back into the room. She plopped me down in the chair and I just stared at her questioningly. Alice grinned. "What? We gotta get you out of the dress so that you can eat before I start your hair and makeup."

I groaned and got out the chair- unwillingly, mind you- and stood on the smaller stool so that Alice could undo the dress.

***~*O*~***

_Three hours._

I had been sitting in the stupid chair for three hours. Three hours of Alice pulling and prodding my hair and now sticking multiple brushes and sponges and God know what else onto my face. She wasn't going to let me see myself until I was completely ready. I told her I had already tried the dress on, so that took away most of the surprise, but she still insisted. I sighed, knowing it was useless to fight with Alice.

When she was done with my face, Alice faced me away from any mirrors and stood me up before jumping on my back and placing her hands over my eyes. I groaned. "Alice! Can't you just lead me and I'll keep my eyes closed?"

"Nope, can't do that, Bella." She laughed. "Rosalie! Can you come lead Bella to her dressing room?"

I could hear the light padding of Rose's feet as she skipped down the hall towards me and her light giggle as she took in Alice's position on my back. I felt her tug on my hand and I followed her to my dressing room. Alice got off my back and Rosalie left the room before Alice closed it. I tried to open my eyes, but Alice caught my movement. "Ah! Not yet, Bella." I sighed.

Alice led me up to the small stool, and I started taking off my shirt and jeans so that Alice could slip the dress over my head. The quiet brush of the fabric over my body had me thinking of dancing with Edward later tonight, and I actually found myself swaying to the music in my head.

An eternity later- actually, it was three minutes- Alice's voice broke through the music in my head. "Alright, Bella, you're done. You can open your eyes now." I opened my eyes, and I'm pretty sure my heart stopped, because I met my reflection in the huge floor-ceiling mirror.

My hair was piled on the top of my head with two thin braids wrapped around the intricate pile of hair. My bangs were loose along with select wisps of hair and there were little beads placed in different spots in my hair.

My eyes were framed in smoky grey eye shadow, and Alice had lightly outlined my eyes with a black eyeliner, but it wasn't too thick so that I looked like a raccoon. My lips were red from the gloss that she had put on. I turned to Alice, smiling. "Alice…."

She held her arms out to me, and I fell into them, dry sobbing. "Bella, calm down, you're going to make yourself a wreck before Edward gets here."

I stopped. "Edward's coming?"

She nodded. "Yupp, he's taking you to the ball."

I looked around for a clock. "What time is it?"

Alice laughed and handed me my phone, along with a clutch that had a handle so that I could hang it from my wrist. "Here, he's been bugging your phone for the last three hours. It's been driving me nuts."

I gasped. "_You _had my phone?! I was worried I had lost it!" I nearly plowed her to the ground in attempts to get my phone. When I had it, my heart swelled when I saw I had over two hundred messages…..all from Edward. In all 212 messages, he had somehow managed to ask me why I was ignoring him, without repeating the same thing twice. I smiled and texted a simple message.

_ Hey, sorry. Alice hijacked my phone, and I just got it back now. Sorry I made you worry._

His response was immediate. ***sighs* Thank God. I thought you had been kidnapped or something…is that too extreme?**

I giggled. _Nah, it fits with the situation. Alice kidnapped me to play Barbie Bella for three hours._

**I bet you look beautiful.**

_Well why don't you get your princely butt over here and find out?_

"And you do look beautiful."

The sound of his velvety tenor voice filled the room, and I dropped my phone onto the nearby couch in surprise. I turned and found him staring at me, emerald eyes grazing over my outfit. "Bella…" he murmured, still looking at me.

I gazed over his suit, so neat and crisp, before meeting those ever green eyes of his. "Edward…" I ran into his arms, without tripping, because Alice hadn't given me my shoes yet. He leant his head into my neck where he started peppering kisses. His smell consumed me, and soon all I could smell was him. I pulled his head up and pressed my lips to his. He smiled into the kiss and pulled back.

"Did you miss me?"

"Mhm…" I mumbled into his chest as much as I could without messing up my makeup, because I knew Alice would kill me if I screwed it up.

He tugged on my hand. "Come on, everyone else is in the limo already." He kissed my forehead and pulled me into the cool Dublin night.

_**So? What'd you think?**_

_**I'll try to get the blog updated for this story, I know I'm really behind. If nothing else, I'll get the picture up for Bella's dress within the next couple of days!**_

_**Don't forget to review!**_

_**PP17**_


	9. Chapter 9

_**No, I haven't fallen off of the face of the earth. I want to cry, I've missed writing so much! This month has just been hectic, though.**_

_**I'll let you get to it, we'll talk more at the bottom.**_

_**Disclaimer: Don't own Twilight, never will.**_

**BPOV**

"Presenting, Lord and Lady Volturi of Italy." I gripped Alice's hand tightly as the ominous words resonated through the hall. We were just outside of London for the ball, having flown for about an hour from Dublin to get here. I had squealed when I found Alice on the plane, all dressed for the ball herself.

To be specific, we were at Windsor Castle, as guests of a ball for Queen Victoria and her son, Prince Riley, of Denmark who were visiting King Charles and Queen Makenna. Many people surrounded us, all dressed in elegant suits and dresses. I could feel Emmett just off to my left behind me, keeping an eye on me until I was with Edward. I didn't know why I was so nervous; maybe it was because I was going to see Edward in a different setting. For the past month, he'd been just Edward to me. Not Prince or any other title. I felt a shiver run through my body at the excitement of hearing him announced.

"They should be one of the next ones, calm down, Bella." I heard Emmett murmur in my ear.

I took a deep breath and nodded. "Yeah, okay." I took another breath and looked at Alice. She gave me a gentle smile and I smiled back at her.

The couple closest to us was looking at us rather strangely, probably because they didn't recognize us. But I wasn't paying attention to them; my gaze was locked on that back door at the top of the stairs where all the royal and important guests were making their entrances.

"Presenting," the guard near the door announced. The quiet murmur of voices stopped when the guard called out. "The Crowned Prince Edward and Princess Rosalie of Ireland."

I was now holding a death grip on Alice's hand as the doors opened, and then I relaxed, because there he was, scars and everything.

I had just seen him on the plane, but I couldn't get over how well he wore his suit with all the tassels and sashes on it. His expression was calm as he walked down the stairs with little Rosalie on his arm. She was all smiles as she walked down the stairs in her pale pink gown that Heidi had made for her. Alice had done her hair in an elegant up do and it lay in gentle curls on her head.

Edward's gaze went around the room, and I saw his gentle smile when he found me. I gave him a quick smile and turned as they found a spot near the other side of the room from me. I turned to look at Emmett and he smiled. "Not yet, Bella. After the rest of the introductions."

I sighed and turned and watched as Carlisle and Esme came next. They looked magnificent together, and all eyes stayed on them until they took their places next to Edward and Rosalie.

Finally, the next two came out, Queen Victoria and Prince Riley. The queen was a tall, statuesque woman whose curly hair was a bright shade of red. Her son was about the same height as she was, but his hair was a sandy brown color. He held himself in a very proud manner, and his expression was rather cocky. Already I could tell that he looked like a pain to talk to. I hoped Edward wouldn't have to introduce me to him.

After King Charles and Queen Makenna arrived, the crowd quickly started moving around, and a pair of comforting arms found their way around my waist. I giggled when I felt his lips at my neck. "I missed you." He murmured.

I smiled and turned around. "You were back there for twenty minutes at the most. But, yeah, I missed you, too. Does that make you feel better?"

Edward grinned. "Immensely." He tugged on my hand. "Here, Mom wants you to meet some people."

He pulled me around the edge of the room towards Esme where she was talking to a familiar looking couple. The male had long black hair and the woman's shiny blond hair was piled on top of her head. Edward walked up to Esme and kissed her cheek, "Mother."

"Edward," she smiled. "Bella!" She turned to the couple. "Marcus, Didyme, this is Miss Isabella Swan. She's been a guest at our castle for the past couple of weeks. Bella, this is Lord Marcus and Lady Didyme Volturi." Oh, they were the couple that entered before Edward and Rosalie. That's why they looked familiar.

I looked at Edward and motioned for him to lean down so I could whisper in his ear. "How do I greet them?"

"Just smile and say 'hello' with a little curtsey, you'll be fine." He said, kissing just behind my ear.

I smiled and looked at the couple before saying hello and giving a small curtsey. Alice and I had practiced with Edward and Rosalie on the plane, and while it wasn't perfect, the couple smiled at my attempt."It's very nice to meet you," I said after I stood back up.

"And you as well," Lady Didyme said in a very thick Italian accent. She turned to Esme and grabbed her hand, patting it gently. "Esme, dear, we must be going, Marcus wishes to talk to your husband, wherever he may have gone. We must talk again, soon." The two women kissed cheeks and then Marcus and Didyme went in search of Carlisle.

I quirked a brow at Esme. "Are all conversations with royalty that short?"

Esme and Edward chuckled, "No," Edward said, tightening his arm around my waist. It was at that moment that my stomach growled, and Edward looked at me, brow raised. "Hungry?" he said, mouth turning up in a smirk.

I blushed. "A little. I haven't eaten since this morning."

He tugged on my hand. "Well, we'll go meet some more people and then head towards the dining hall. Dinner's going to start soon."

He led me in the direction of a small cluster of people, but before we reached them, someone bumped into me, and I fell, thankfully not ripping my dress.

"Bella!" Edward carefully helped me up, along with the help of the mystery person. "Are you all right?" Edward turned me to look at him, concern etching every facet of his scarred face.

"Oh, don't worry about me, but I'm alright, thanks for asking."

Edward tensed as the mystery person made himself known. "Riley," Edward said in an eerily cool voice. I turned and found myself face to face with the cocky Prince Riley.

"Eddie! I was just coming over to say hi when I happened to run into your _beautiful _friend."

I stiffened at his mention of me. Edward's arm wrapped around my waist.

Riley looked at Edward's hand around my waist and frowned before quickly masking it with a cocky grin. He looked at me and held out a hand. "I _know _we haven't met before. I would've remembered you. I'm Prince Riley of Denmark, but who doesn't know that!" He laughed obnoxiously to himself, and tried to take my hand to kiss it, but I shrunk into Edward's side. "Oh come, now. I don't bite."

I pulled my hand away and glared at him. "That I know of, and I'm certainly not sticking around to find out."

"Oh come on," Riley scoffed. "I'm sure we can find something to talk about. There's no way you're as dull as scar face over here."

"I believe she said she was done talking to you. Come on, _álainn_, let's go sit down. Dinner's going to start soon." I shivered at the name Edward called me. It was definitely Irish. I would have to ask him what it meant later. Edward kissed the top of my head and led me towards the doors of the dining hall.

"I don't like him, Edward." I said, leaning closer to him once he sat me down in the hall. We placed ourselves closer to one of the ends where Carlisle and Esme were deep in conversation with an elderly couple.

He just nodded and soothingly rubbed a hand up and down my thigh. "I know, Bella. I don't like him, either. I haven't liked him since I first met him when we were oh, seven or so. Mom thought I needed some other royal 'friends' and since she and Riley's mom, Victoria, are pretty friendly, she thought we would get along okay." He chuckled and shook his head. "Yeah, that didn't happen."

I smiled and leaned my head on his shoulder when I felt someone tap my shoulder. I turned and saw Alice plop herself down in the chair next to me. "You know, if you two weren't so cute together, I would be insanely jealous of you right now, Bella, along with every other single female in the room."

I just laughed as Edward grabbed my hand and placed it on his lap, encasing it in both of his large, warm hands.

"Find anyone interesting to talk to, Alice?"

She shrugged. "Eh, I followed Emmett around. He was watching over Rosalie, and she introduced me to some of her friends that are here. They're so nice!"

I chuckled. "I know, right? I met them at a tea party that Rosalie took me along to. They were more fun to talk to than the girls our age!"

Alice nodded. "I can see that. Ugh, but did you see that Prince Riley guy? What a total jerk!"

I frowned. "Yeah, we had an unfortunate meeting with him. He bumped into me and made me fall."

"He didn't rip your dress, did her?" Alice questioned with a serious gaze. I shook my head no. "Good, he would be hearing from me if he had."

Edward chuckled. "I'm sure he would have, Alice."

It was then that Alice looked around, obviously searching for something. "When is dinner starting anyway?"

Edward and I laughed as we saw the butlers coming in the hall through another door, trays resting in their hands. A bell rang in the distance, and I faintly heard the announcer in the hall say that dinner was being served.

***~*O*~***

I don't know what time we got back to the castle, but all I knew was that I was exhausted. I fell asleep on the plane on our way home, curled into Edward's side as best as I could. I had thoroughly enjoyed myself, more than I thought I was going to. It seemed that Edward and I danced for hours after dinner, and I wasn't worried once about falling.

When we got back to the castle, Alice and I made our way to my room, the one that we had shared during her first stay here. Alice kindly helped me take care of my hair, pulling out all the pins and undoing all the braids. We crashed that night, sleeping soundly in my plush bed, a fire crackling in the fireplace.

The next morning, I was woken rather abruptly from my dream to a squealing Alice. I groaned and turned to check the time on my phone. "Alice, it's six in the morning. Wake me back up in like, four hours."

"No. B, you gotta look at this!"

I opened one eye to see Alice leaning over me, her iPad in her hands. My other eye popped open when I saw what she wanted me to see. I sat straight up. "Give me that!"

There, on the cover of an internet magazine, was a picture of Edward and I at the ball last night. We were both smiling, and Edward had his arm wrapped around my waist to keep me from falling. I flipped through more of the pages and saw picture after picture of us at the ball, in Dublin, and any other place we had been in the last month.

I was suddenly feeling very lightheaded, and I could hear Alice off to one side. "Bella, you're not breathing."

I looked at her, panic written on both of our faces, and let out a huge gasp. Alice sighed. "Bella, relax,"

"Relax?" I whispered. "They've been following me since I _got _here, Alice, and I didn't even know! How am I supposed to relax knowing someone's practically following my every step?"

Alice was about to respond when a gentle knock sounded at the door. "Bella? It's Esme; can I come in, dear?"

Alice walked to the door and opened it, Esme walking in with a tray of fruit and eggs. "Here, dear, I thought you could use some food."

She set the tray down and I started picking at the food haphazardly. A glance down at my bed had Esme reaching for the iPad. "Ah, I see you saw the article. But, Bella, you can trust me when I say that you don't need to be worried."

I looked at her questioningly. She smiled. "The person who took those photos and I are on good terms and the magazine she works for understands our privacy policy very well. That's why we haven't had to worry about having a publicity assistant around; we've never had to worry about mass groups of paparazzi around."

I physically relaxed. "So I shouldn't be worried that the whole world is going to see me in this magazine?"

Esme smiled and shook her head. "No, you're okay." She stood up and placed a hand on my cheek before turning to leave. Just before she reached the door, she turned back. "Oh, Bella? Someone else was also awoken very early this morning, and he really wants to talk to you. I believe he's pacing in the library, last time I checked." She winked and left the room, closing the door behind her.

_**So, I'm almost done with school for this year (I get done in about 2.5 weeks!), so I'm not sure how much updating I'll get done between work, school, sports, and studying for my finals. I promise I'm not giving up on this story, but I don't know how much time I'll have to write.**_

_**Please review as always!**_

_**Penny**_


	10. Chapter 10

_**Yes, it's been eons since I've updated, but I have news at the bottom, so I'll just let you get to it.**_

**BPOV**

After hurriedly throwing on a sweatshirt over my sleep shorts and tank top, I ran out of my room and back towards the library. When I got there, the room was empty, but a fire was slowly ebbing away its remnants in the fireplace. That was when I heard it. It was barely audible, despite the room being right across the hall, but there was no mistaking the soft tones of the piano. I spun around and headed out of the library and across the hall to the closed door that opened to Edward's elusive room with the large window and magnificent piano. I hadn't been near the room since the accident, which no one discussed anymore. Edward and I had forgiven each other for the things that were said and done, but I knew he still beat himself up over my scar. I gently opened the door and peered in; sighing when I saw what met me.

Edward was hunched over the piano, concentration etched into every facet of his face as his fingers traveled over the keys, beautiful music pouring out from the sleek black instrument. I stayed against the door as he continued to play. The tune was soft and mellow, but pleasant to listen to. The gentle melody continued to weave through the underlying harmonies until it slowed down and the last chord faded away in the ringing quiet of the room. He sat up, and looked in my direction, and smiled. "Hey."

I smiled. "Hi." I motioned towards the piano. "That was beautiful. What's it called?"

He looked away, down towards the piano keys, but not quick enough that I couldn't see the hint of blush on his cheeks. He was blushing? Now I really wanted to know. I walked over to stand behind him and wrapped my arms around his shoulders, leaning down to place my head in the crook of his neck. I turned and kissed the side of his neck. "You're blushing? Edward…" I murmured.

He placed a hand on top of my clasped ones, rubbing a thumb against one of my knuckles, before sighing and standing up, walking over to one of the bookshelves and picking up a pile of paper. He walked back over to me, uncertainty written all over his face. Stopping just before he reached me, he waved the pieces of paper. "I've been working on this for a couple of weeks; in fact, it was the piece you saw sitting on the piano when you…y'know, came in here a week or so ago." He handed over the papers, and I took them from him gingerly.

The couple papers that were there were completely covered in eraser and pencil marks alike. Gazing at each page, I was shocked that I didn't notice it right away. Right at the top of the first page in his elegant, but manly, script, "Bella's Lullaby" was written. Oh gosh, I could feel the tears starting to build up. I looked up at him with what I knew were eyes shining with tears ready to fall. "Edward…I…this is amazing."

He smiled and cupped his hands to my face, the pads of his thumbs wiping away the few tears that escaped. "Do you want to hear it?" he murmured.

I smiled and nodded my head. He took my hand, leading me to sit by him on the bench before turning to the keys. "Um," I started. He looked at me. "Don't you need the music?"

He smiled sheepishly and shook his head. "I've played it so many times in the past three days that I have it memorized. You can keep it."

I grinned as he turned back to the piano and proceeded to fill the room with luscious sounds from the piano. The song started with a quieter melody ringing out in the top notes of the piano before increasing slightly in tempo and sound in the middle and then quieting to a lull at the end.

As the final chord dissipated into nothing in the quiet room, Edward turned to look at me, a look I didn't recognize shining in his eyes. He took one look at me before glancing down to my lips and then back to my eyes, leaning in. I closed my eyes a split second before his lips touched mine. This kiss was slow and gentle, our lips and tongues caressing each others at a languid pace.

When we finally pulled back for air, Edward cupped my cheek again with his hand. "I actually really did want to talk to you…"

I smiled. "That's what your mom said. You're not mad about being in the magazine, are you?"

He shook his head. "Maggie- the photographer- is very nice, and she and my mom have a _very _strict contract. My mom has to check over every picture taken that Maggie wants to use and gets final say on if it goes in the magazine or not. Since it's in a small Irish magazine, the possibility of it being picked up by an American magazine is not likely at all, so you'll be fine." As he finished speaking, he leaned in to kiss my forehead, leaning his against mine afterwards. "I want to take you to dinner tonight," he murmured. "Would that be okay with you?"

Nodding against his forehead, I whispered my ascent.

He smiled. "Good, wear something nice- we're going to head into Dublin."

***~*O*~***

We stayed in the piano room until three- him playing the piano and me reading books, stealing kisses, or just small talk- when Edward finally suggested that we go get ready for dinner. I walked lazily to my room, when Alice abruptly pulled me into the room as I opened the door.

"Alice," I laughed, "what's with the rushing? I've got time."

She smiled. "I know, I just need to make sure I have time to do your hair. I have your dress picked out, so go take a shower so that I can get started."

With a mock salute, I made my way to the bathroom and let the hot water cascade down my back, releasing some of the tension that hadn't been released after my day with Edward. I also thought of my dad, who I hadn't talked to for a couple of days, but since I knew it was still really early in Forks, I figured I could call him when I got back from my date.

When I walked back into my room, my pajamas back on, Alice sat me down in one of the chairs and started on my hair. After my hair, she turned me and started my makeup, still not letting me see what I looked like in the mirror, which I had gotten used to after years of her dressing me for special occasions.

Finally, Alice held up the dress. It was a one-shoulder cocktail dress that was navy blue. The fabric seemed to sweep up towards the shoulder strap, which was sequined in shiny silver stones. There were three, thin straps on the back of the dress that also pulled towards the strap. They also bared a little more of my back, which I actually really liked.

Once I had the dress on, Alice pulled me towards the mirror, and I smiled at her work. Like always, Alice was fantastic. She had braided my bangs and intertwined it into the rest of my hair, which was pulled into a low ponytail that hung low and draped onto my shoulder. My makeup was dark around my eyes and she had put some red lipstick on my lips to give me a little color pop.

After finishing off the ensemble with strappy silver heels and a clutch that I put my phone in, I headed out the bedroom door, only to run right into Edward, hand raised to knock on my door. I smiled. "Hi there."

He chuckled. "Hi." His eyes grazed over my outfit before he murmured, "you look beautiful, Bella."

I blushed, looking to the floor, "thanks."

He took my hand and we descended the stairs. Esme was at the bottom smiling when she saw us. "You look beautiful, Bella," she said as she pulled me into a hug. "Now, don't stay out too late, you two," she said with a smile.

Edward laughed. "I promise, Mom. We'll be back before ten." And with that, he tugged on my hand and we made our way outside to the limo, where Emmett stood holding the door open for us.

***~*O*~***

After dinner, Edward was feeling nostalgic, so we drove to St. Stephen's Green and took a walk through, the park lit up brilliantly by both the moon and the park lights. We found a bench near one of the fountains and it was then that I noticed that Edward had been strangely quiet on the walk. I turned to look at him. He was wringing his hands together, and he seemed to be mumbling under his breath.

"Edward? Are you okay?"

He turned to look at me, that same look that I saw in the piano room this morning on his face. He nodded. "Yeah, I'm okay. I just…" he sighed. "I- I have something I need to tell you, and I don't know how you'll react- that's the problem."

I smiled and cupped his cheek. "Just tell me, Edward."

He sighed. "Bella, I-"

He was cut off by the sound of my phone ringing. Knowing Alice would have just texted me if she wanted to tell me something, I picked up the phone to see that the hospital in Forks was calling me. Confusion etched on my face, I answered the phone. "Hello?"

"_Yes, is this Bella Swan?"_

I nodded before realizing that the person couldn't see me nod. "Yes, this is she."

"_Bella, this is Dr. Gerandy from Forks Hospital. I just wanted to let you know that your father was placed under our care earlier today when he was brought in earlier with a bullet in his shoulder. He is stable now, but as his emergency contact, I am responsible for letting you know."_

Shock was written all over my face- I could tell. I stared at Edward with huge eyes; he stared back at me, confusion and worry in his expression.

After I thanked the doctor, I hung up and placed the phone in my lap. The tears that had pooled during the call came rushing out now. I could feel Edward as he pulled me onto his lap and then stood up, carrying me back to the limo. Murmured voices sounded around me and then we were in the back of the limo, pulling away from the curb.

Nothing was said for a while, just Edward holding and caressing me as I cried. When I had quieted down, Edward turned my face to his, rubbing gently at the remnants of tears trailing down my face. "Are you okay?" he murmured.

I nodded. "Yeah," I said, sniffling. "Um, the doctor from the hospital in Forks called. My dad is in the hospital." Fresh tears started pouring. "I have to go see him, Edward."

His expression looked pained, but he spoke clearly. "Okay, we'll take you and Alice tonight." All I could do is nod and curl into his side more as we rode the rest of the way back to the castle.

***~*O*~***

Alice was waiting at the entrance of the castle as we got out of the limo. Sobbing, I fell into her arms as we walked up the stairs to pack our things. Mine took a little longer, what with all the clothes I had gained and the ball gown and dress I was still wearing. I pulled out a sweatshirt and a pair of sweats before changing quickly.

After I triple checked that everything was packed, Alice and I headed to the entrance. Esme and Edward were standing near the door with a sleepy-eyed, pajama clad Rosalie. I knelt to her level first. "Take care of your brother for me," I murmured to her, trying to keep a smile on my face.

"You'll come to visit, right?" she said, wrapping her arms around my shoulders. I tried to keep the tears at bay as I held her against me. I stood up, receiving a hug from Esme before turning to Edward.

He was staring at the floor, hands shoved into his pants pockets. I wrapped a hand around his wrist before pulling him outside. As he pushed me against the cold stone of the castle wall, he leaned to press his nose to the base of my neck. "You know I'm going to miss you, right?" he murmured against my skin.

I sobbed and nodded my head. He pulled back, his own tears shining in his eyes, and pulled something out from his pocket. He opened his hand to reveal a ring. It was silver, and the band's ends swooped in opposite directions so that they didn't meet. Each swoop had a space for two small diamonds, and in the space between the two ends, a lone diamond shone brilliantly. I gasped as he slid it onto the third finger of my right hand.

"Remember me?" he murmured, bringing his hands to my face so that I could look at him.

All I could do was nod and hold myself to him for a few more precious seconds.

"Bella? Are you ready to go?" I turned to see Alice standing at the top of the stairs with Emmett, who was holding our bags. I nodded, and with one last kiss to Edward's lips, I trudged down the stairs and into the limo, where it appropriately started down pouring, causing me to lose sight of Edward at the top of the staircase.

***~*O*~***

**EPOV**

I stood out on the staircase long after the taillights of the limo had disappeared into the rain. Big, fat drops relentlessly continued their descent, marking cold paths down my body. I faintly heard the door open as the light from the hall washed out into the darkness.

"Edward? Won't you come inside?" my mother's voice echoed from the hall. I turned and walked back into the castle, grabbing a few towels that Alec was holding. Once I dried off, Mom sent me up to my room, where Rosalie was sitting on my bed, a pillow bunched to her face, staring into a crackling fire in the fireplace.

I changed into a pair of sleep pants and then crawled up next to Rose.

"Are we ever gonna see Bella again?"she asked me, big tears pooling in her eyes.

I smiled sadly as I brushed hair away from her face. "I sure hope so, Rosie."

Not much later, Rose was fast asleep on my bed, but not feeling tired, I got up and headed down the hall, intent on playing my piano. When I walked past the library, however; my mother called me in.

"Edward?"

I walked in the room to find her curled up in one of the big armchairs near the fireplace. She closed her book when I sat on the floor by her chair, and just stared into the fire. She brushed some of the stray locks of my hair away from my face, murmuring, "We should probably cut your hair again, soon. It's getting long…"

I shrugged. "Sounds good to me."

Her hand stopped, moving to my chin so she could make me look at her. Understanding crossed her face. "You gave her the ring, didn't you?"

I nodded, looking at the ground. "I didn't even get to tell her what it meant…"

"The fact that you gave it to her, though…" she sighed. "It shows how much you love her."

I looked at her. She smiled. "Don't you even try to deny it, Edward. It's written all over your face."

All I could do was smile, looking back into the fire. She laughed and got up, kissing the top of my head before standing straight up. "Get some sleep, please. I'll see you in the morning."

I stayed in the library for a little while longer, just looking into the fire, smiling at the realization of just how much the American named Bella Swan had truly become a big part of me.

_**Okay, so I understand that this is very late, and it's probably not the best chapter that you've ever read. My sincerest apologies.**_

_**My grandmother passed away from lung and liver cancer at the beginning of June, and so the rest of the month was preparations for her funeral and then family, family, and family. I had no time for anything, and I wanted to cry every time I saw a new review, especially the ones asking me if I was going to keep updating.**_

_**I'm sorry for making you wait this long, but thank you to those who have stuck with this story despite my lack of updates.**_

_**As always, reviews are much appreciated!**_

_**Penny**_


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